New Delhi, August 16 (IANS). The Union Mines Ministry is organizing a road show on the 8th round of auction of important and 'critical mineral blocks' and a workshop on National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust (NMEDT) in Patna on Monday.

The statement said that this 8th round of auction includes 20 mineral blocks, of which 3 are mining lease and 17 composite license blocks. These include many important and strategic minerals like graphite, rare earth elements (REE), rare metals, vanadium, gallium, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, potash, phosphorite and glauconite.

This program will be presided over by Minister of State for Coal and Mines, Satish Chandra Dubey. On this occasion, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, State Mines Minister Pramod Kumar and senior officials of the state government, Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited (MECL) will be present. Industry representatives and potential investors will also participate in the program.

In this road show, potential investors and industry people will be given information about the prospects of minerals present in the blocks put up for auction, auction methods, bidding process and opportunities for investment and participation in the critical and strategic minerals sector. MECL will give detailed information about mineral blocks, SBICAPS about mineral auction process and tender documents, and MSTC about e-auction process.

The event will also include a presentation on the NMEDT scheme for partial reimbursement of exploration expenses for composite license holders. Following this, there will be an open-house discussion to interact with stakeholders and answer questions to the auction process.

The second part of the program will include a workshop on 'Mineral Exploration: Planning, Implementation and Reporting'. In this workshop, topics like mineral exploration potential in India, National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR), preparation of exploration blocks using NGDR and preparation of mineral exploration report will be discussed. Besides, senior officers of DSI will also take technical sessions.

This initiative reflects the Government's continued efforts to boost exploration, accelerate development of 'critical mineral blocks', increase private sector participation and strengthen India's mineral security. It also supports the larger vision of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' as it facilitates domestic exploration and development of minerals required for emerging technology, clean energy and other strategic sectors, the statement said.

–IANS

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