Apropos the report, "Govt to auction 20 iron ore mines to revive industry" (August 26), calling these 'auctions' is misleading: these are only auctions of potential mineral-bearing areas - 'potential' because exploratory efforts already undertaken are meagre. Once acquired, these will become prospects as and when further exploratory efforts are undertaken.
Only after these exploratory efforts are successfully completed can the prospects be called 'mines', which is not guaranteed, as among other factors, luck and chance play a role in finding and establishing mineral occurrence.
S M Bothra Nagpur
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