Mumbai, Oct. 20 -- The Ministry of Mines has notified amendment to the Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2015, introducing intermediary timelines for various activities to be completed after issue of Letter of Intent (LoI) till execution of mining lease. Since commencement of auction regime in 2015, a total of 585 major mineral blocks has been successfully auctioned including 34 critical mineral blocks auctioned by the Central government. Initially the pace of auction was slow, however, for past three years, on average over 100 minerals blocks are being successfully auctioned. During the current year, in first seven months only, 112 mineral blocks have already been successfully auctioned.

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