Vedanta, Jindal Power, Ola joins first tranche of critical minerals auction

Mining major Vedanta, Jindal Power and state-owned NLC India are among the players which participated in the first tranche of the auction of critical minerals, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday.

A total of 56 bids were received for 20 critical and strategic blocks put on auction in the first tranche launched in November 2023, the minister told reporters after the lunch of the second tranche of the auction of critical and strategic minerals.

Around 180 enquiries came from interested parties and 56 bids have been received from companies like Vedanta, NLC, Shree Cement, Dalmia, and Jindal Power, he said.

 

The list includes a number of EV players also like Ola Electric, he said.

In the first tranche, 20 mineral blocks including lithium were put on auction. Of these 16 have been put up for grant of composite licence and four for grant of mining lease.

Earlier in the day government launched the second part of its critical minerals auction worth an estimated 30 trillion rupees (about $362 billion), the country's mines minister Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday.

A total of 18 blocks of critical and strategic minerals, including graphite, tungsten, vanadium, cobalt and nickel, among others, will be auctioned across eight states across the country, a government statement said.
 

Seventeen mineral blocks have been put up for a composite license, while one block is for a mining lease, it added. A composite license includes a license to examine a block and mine it afterwards.
 

Mineral blocks are being auctioned in the central Indian states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
 

Arunachal Pradesh in the east and Rajasthan in the west are also on the list.
 

The first round of auctions waslaunched in November last year, in a move to drive the country's clean energy push.