By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/BARBIL: If grapevines in media are to be believed, worried over the proposed reforms in Mining and Coal sectors, Mines owners , who were given right 5 years back, now feeling the heat of reforms, are likely to knock the doors and Supreme Court and as well as various State High Courts against the move of the Union Mines Ministry.“Since we got the rights, in last 5 years we have spent a lot of money to carry out geological exploration successfully and waiting for the next stage – of prospecting or mining,” a Mines Owner in Bhubaneswar said.
Bangalore based Deccan Gold Mining Pvt Ltd’s Gold deposit in Karnataka, Jindal Steel and Power Limited’s Iron Ore Block in Jharkhand, and MSPL’s claim to a deposit of rare earth in Rajasthan are among the major blocks will be under cloud if the Ministry goes ahead with its move. More than 150 lessees, including Bajrang Power and Ispat, Ultratech Cement and Rungta Mines Ltd, had moved the high court of their respective States after failing to sign deeds under the two-year window offered by Section 2 (c). These are now pending before the Supreme Court after the Centre sought a transfer of the petitions, a report in The Economic Times said.
These “legacy issues”, addressed through another amendment, deleting Section 10 A (2) (b) and (2) (c) from the Act, would free more than 700 blocks. So far , 95 leases have been auctioned since 2015 which promise to bring Rs 5.68 lakh crore to the exchequer in premiums alone over the life of the leases.Some miners pointed out that while the Centre had refused to act on applications, including for minerals like gold which the country is deficient in, the same section of the law has been invoked by the Karnataka Government to grant rights to limestone deposits.
The 2015 Act passed its first real test earlier this year with the auction of 23 mines in Odisha. The average bids of 110% means where the old lessee paid the state Rs 17.5 towards royalty and other mining taxes for every Rs 100 of iron ore sold, the new lessee is promising to pay Rs 127.5.
Earlier, talking to www.indianewsdiary.com, over phone from Bengaluru, Sandeep Lakhwara ,MD, Deccan Gold Mines Pvt Ltd, had said many exploration and mining companies like Deccan Gold Mines Ltd have relied on section 10 A2b to undertake exploration at a huge expense and make discoveries of gold deposit and apply for prospecting and mining licences. “We were requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Mines, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahallad Joshi and well as the Karnataka State Government to not so hasty and give justice to us by granting Letter of Intent (LoP),” he had said.
