National Mineral Exploration Policy

Union Government had unveiled National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP), 2016 for adaptation of comprehensive exploration of non-fuel and non-coal mineral resources. The NMEP is expected to benefit the entire mineral sector across the country.

Key highlights

NMEP, 2016 aims to uncover full mineral potential of the country in order to put the nation’s mineral resources (non-fuel and non-coal) to best use and maximize sectoral contribution to economy bringing together best of knowledge and experience, modern technology, trained manpower and financial resources on a collaborative platform. The NMEP primarily aims at accelerating the exploration activity in the country through enhanced participation of the private sector. The following are the salient highlights:

• Emphasizes on making available baseline geo-scientific data of world standards in the public domain, quality research in a public-private partnership (PPP).
• Pave way for the special initiatives for search of deep-seated and concealed mineral deposits.
• Undertake quick aero-geophysical surveys of country and creation of dedicated geoscience database etc.
• The Union Ministry of Mines will carry out auctioning of identified exploration blocks for exploration by private sector. Auctioning will be done on the revenue sharing basis in case their exploration leads to auctionable resources. The revenue will be borne by the successful bidder of those auctionable blocks.
• Gives emphasis to use of space technology to check illegal mining by developing a mining surveillance system.
• A not-for-profit autonomous institution known as the National Centre for Mineral Targeting (NCMT) is proposed to be established to address the mineral exploration challenges in the country.
• Similar to the UNCOVER project of Australia, special initiative will be launched in collaboration with the prposed NCMT, National Geophysical Research Institute and Geoscience Australia to probe concealed mineral deposits in the country.

Analysis

The new policy will promote vibrant exploration sector and will spur an engaging private participation. Involving private stakeholders is likely to bring better technologies for strategic activities and break the monopoly of state owned companies. The new policy also replaces the scam-ridden first-cum-first service with e-auctioning to increase transparency and accountability. It seeks to address some of the flaws like this in the existing policies. The new policy also effectively addresses the concerns of the explorers by compensating the costs of an unsuccessful exploration effort. This is likely to make private players to actively take part in exploration activity without the fear of making losses.

Way forward

It is estimated that so far only 10% of the mineral wealth has been explored. So in order to have long term economic growth a vibrant mining sector is essential. At the same time government should also take care that environmental concerns are addressed effectively. Similarly, government should take efforts to address rehabilitation issues and ensure that concerns of local communities are taken into account while making decisions in sensitive activities like mining. Also, government should make available a reliable and accessible database on mineral availability for proper price discovery and credibility of mines.