Offshore Mineral

Offers include sand blocks in Kollam, lime mud in Porbandar, and polymetallic reserves near Great Nicobar Island

In August 2023, Parliament amended the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002, instituting an auction-based approach for allocating mineral blocks in offshore areas

The government is planning to begin the auction of offshore mineral blocks in the next two to three months and around 10 such mines are likely to be auctioned in the first phase, coal and mines minister G Kishan Reddy said on Thursday. The government amended the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002, to provide an auction route for awarding production leases for offshore minerals. Offshore minerals are located deep within the earth's crust and are difficult to extract compared to onshore minerals. Speaking to media after the inauguration of mines ministry pavilion at India International Trade Fair, Reddy said the government plans "to auction offshore minerals blocks in two to three months". India's offshore mineral reserves include gold, diamond, copper, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements. The offshore auctions will help increase the availability of these minerals in India and reduce dependence on imports. The minister further said

The Act has established ad valorem royalty rates for key minerals, meaning that rates are based on the mineral's sale value rather than quantity

The mines ministry has identified 10 offshore mineral blocks for potential auction and is holding inter-ministerial consultation to secure approval

The Rules come ahead of the Centre's scheduled launch of the inaugural round of offshore mineral auctions

Now, G2 needed for mining leases, while G4 must for obtaining composite licences

In her first public comments since taking the company's helm on Friday, Chambriard said replenishing oil reserves was a priority for Petrobras

India will become the leader in offshore mining as not many countries have done much in this area, a government official said on Tuesday. Offshore mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep seabed, at a depth of more than 200 metres. Speaking at the Critical Minerals Summit here, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Mines, Veena Kumari D said the government has amended the offshore mining legislation. "We have done amendment to the Act for offshore mining and we are working on the rules for that and India will be the leader in offshore mining because not many countries have done much of offshore mining and we were working on it since August 2023," she added. Mines Secretary V L Kantha Rao in his address on Monday had said that the auction of offshore mines will begin in three months' time. The Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 has been amended to provide an auction route for awarding production leases for offshore minerals. "Currentl

"In Africa, we are exploring opportunities in Zambia, Namibia, Congo, Ghana, and Mozambique for critical minerals," the secretary said, adding that they are engaging with Australia for lithium blocks

Proposed plan involves cap of Rs 100 cr each for performance security and upfront payment for a PL

The mines ministry on Thursday said it has identified some offshore blocks for granting operational rights and has sought inputs from the departments concerned to ensure there is no overlapping with other projects. In August, the government amended the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development & Regulation) Act (OAMDR) and introduced a transparent and non-discretionary auction process as the method of allocation of operating rights in the offshore areas. "The ministry has identified some blocks in the exclusive economic zone of India... in this regard, the ministry has sought comments/inputs from concerned ministries/department for availability of the offshore blocks for grant of operating rights to avoid any overlapping with the projects," the ministry said in a statement. To implement the provisions of the amended Act, the ministry framed two sets of draft rules -- Offshore Areas Mineral Auction Rules and Offshore Areas Existence of Mineral Resources Rules. The main features of the ...

The Ministry of Mines, has also restricted the bid security for 'Production Lease' to Rs 10 crore, contrasting with the Rs 50 crore limit for onshore auctions

Critical minerals are defined as those that are essential to the economic and national security of a nation but that have a supply chain vulnerable to disruption

Around 15 offshore blocks will also be auctioned in March

A bill to provide a fixed 50-year production lease for offshore minerals was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid protests by the opposition over the situation in ethnic-violence hit Manipur. Replying to a brief discussion in the House, Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said under the Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment) Bill, 2023, the government seeks to introduce auction as the route to award production lease for offshore minerals. Joshi said the bill also proposes to introduce a composite licence, which is a two-stage operating right granted for the purpose of undertaking exploration followed by production operation. The composite licence would also be granted only through auction by competitive bidding to the private sector, he said. "We are opting for the auction route. These people who are protesting here, their relatives will not be getting anything. This is the reason why they are opposing the bill," Joshi said as opposition members raised ...

An explosion and fire have destroyed an offshore gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, while two workers died, six were injured and one was missing, officials said. The state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said the disaster happened on the Nohoch gas transfer platform that it operates on Friday. It said the dead and missing workers were employed by a subcontractor. It did not specify who the six injured worked for. The company's statement said seven ships evacuated a total of 321 workers from the platform. Photos distributed by the company showed several fire boats pumping streams of water onto the still-smoking platform. Octavio Romero, director of Petroleos Mexicanos, said the platform "was totally destroyed" but that several other nearby, linked platforms did not catch fire. There appeared to be little risk of an oil spill, though it was unclear whether the accident might force the company to increase flaring of gas, a process of burning excess gas that pumps large amount

These offshore blocks contain minerals such as zirconium, tungsten, rare earth elements, etc

About 50-60 blocks would be put on auction, says Balwinder Kumar