India’s Ministry of Mines has launched two new auction tranches aimed at expanding domestic access to critical minerals and opening more ground to licensed exploration.
The ninth tranche of the critical and strategic mineral-block auction offers 20 blocks across eight states. The government identified rare-earth elements, graphite and vanadium among the resources covered. These materials sit at the centre of supply chains for energy storage, advanced manufacturing, electronics and defence.
A third exploration-licence auction was launched alongside it, comprising 11 blocks in six states. An exploration licence gives a successful bidder the right to undertake reconnaissance and prospecting for specified minerals; it is distinct from the later mining lease needed to extract a discovered deposit commercially.
The ministry also introduced ANVESH and EKAM, two Indian Bureau of Mines portals intended to improve access to production, dispatch, sales, price and trade data and to support regulatory administration. The announcements were made during the Conference of Mining Ministers in Goa on 5 November. Read the Ministry of Mines announcement.
