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The first round of critical mineral bids had a lacklustre reaction; thus, the Centre decided to cancel the auction for 13 out of the 20 blocks that were made available. Two of the 13 mines received no offers, while the other 11 received less than three bids each.
An official informed of the development stated, "It has been decided to return the bid security to bidders for 11 mineral blocks that received less than three bids each." Glauconite, nickel, chromium, and platinum group elements (PGE), potash, nickel and copper, molybdenum ore, graphite, lithium, titanium, and bauxite (aluminous laterite) are among the materials in these blocks that did not receive a favourable response. They are dispersed over Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Seven of these mines will be offered for rebidding under a fresh round of auctions launched earlier this month. Two blocks that received no bids hold molybdenum and are in Tamil Nadu. A second round of auctions with 18 other critical mineral blocks is also presently underway.
Responding to a query on the seven blocks that did get a good response in the first bid round, a senior government official said, "Blocks holding phosphorite and fertiliser minerals have got 5-6 bids per mine. The lithium block in Chhattisgarh has got more than 10 bids while graphite mines have 4-5 bidders per block."
In June 2023, the government released a list of 30 critical minerals for the country. These include antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, platinum group elements (PGE), phosphorous, and potash.
Rare Earth Elements (REE), rhenium, silicon, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium and cadmium also figure in this list.
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