Coal India, Hindustan Zinc and Jindal Power are among the companies weighing to submit bids for the critical mineral blocks, highlighting healthy interest from the state-owned and private players of the industry.
A Coal India spokesperson confirmed that the country's largest mining company is participating in the bidding process but did not disclose the mineral block. Hindustan Zinc Chief Executive Officer Arun Mishra also confirmed the company's interest towards critical minerals.
"We are considering to bid, but have not submitted it yet," Mishra told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of 2nd India Steel and Metal conference. "We are looking at critical minerals as a new business opportunity, need to shift focus on them," he added. However, Mishra did not specify the mineral block the company is interested to bid for.
Lithium, platinum-group elements, graphite, molybdenum, potash, phosphorite, rare earth elements, and glauconite are among the 24 minerals listed as strategic and critical for the country by the government. These blocks are located in states including Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Also read: India plans first tranche of critical mineral auction on Nov 29
Meanwhile, Jindal Power has submitted a query citing concerns about limited time available for study of geological reports as well as site visits, according to the bidders queries listed uploaded on the MSTC auction website.
"The due-diligence of these blocks requires some more time to submit our technical bids. We, therefore, humbly request your good office to kindly extend the Bid Due Date for submission of technical bids for the said critical mineral blocks by at least three weeks so that we can complete due diligence and submit technical bids," the company wrote in its query.
Jindal Power did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.
Auction upcoming
Media reported that the central government has given a one-month relaxation in timelines to facilitate site visits by bidders for India’s first critical mineral auctions.
"For the first tranche (20 blocks), actual auctioning will start online by end of this month," mines minister Pralhad Joshi told MoneyControl in an exclusive interview.
"In total we have 100 blocks so far. Of that, another 25-30 we plan to offer in the second tranche for which planning has been done. The second tranche of critical mineral auctions will happen sometime by Feb end. Our target is to get the second tranche out before the model code of conduct," he added.
Also read: Government to launch second round of critical minerals auction before February
The plans come amid government's efforts to expedite critical mineral mining in order to start the production phase by the end of financial year2028 (FY28), according to reports.
A recent report by International Energy Agency (IEA) states that faster deployment of clean energy technologies will translate to a nearly fourfold increase in demand for critical minerals in 2030 from today’s level.
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