As many as nine mineral blocks on auction, including two from Karnataka iron ore plots, had received good response, Balvinder Kumar, Secretary of Ministry of Mines, said on Tuesday.

Bids for the first iron ore plot in Karnataka were 90 per cent above the reserve price.

In the second mine, the bid was almost 100 per cent over the reserve price, he said, adding that the government will be getting above ₹25,000 crore by way of royalties over a period of 50 years.

“A total of seven blocks are also being put up for auctions by the state government of Karnataka and we expect extremely good response in these seven mineral areas,” Kumar said, while inaugurating an Assocham conference on ‘India Mining Summit 2016’.

On the issue of minimum import duty hike or minimum import price (MIP) on aluminium industry, Kumar said, “We are examining this matter in depth and two-three rounds of discussions have taken place with different segments of aluminium industry. So, either we may go for MIP or alternatively increase the import duty but we want to develop a consensus among the different segment of aluminium industry. We are working on it and in next 15 days will take a decision on this issue.”

By the end of this fiscal year, minimum 40-50 mining leases are to be auctioned by various states. As many as 15 category C mines were re-auctioned, which were earlier cancelled by the Supreme Court.

To check illegal mining across the country through imaginary from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Kumar said, “We are going to monitor all the mining areas through the satellite imaginary. We will launch a mobile app where anybody can upload a photo of illegal mining.”

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