Minister Goyal suggest PPP model.

India needs Private sector participation is needed to step up mineral exploration, says Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines.

The sector is currently constrained due to lack of private sector participation, he said while inaugurating a conference on ‘Indian Mining Industry 2030 – Way Forward’.

The time was ripe to reflect on where we had gone wrong and suggested a Public and Private Participation (PPP) model could be tried out for giving a fillip to mineral exploration.

He urged the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to set up a committee comprising young mining aspirants to develop a position paper to speed up exploration activities.

This committee should look at innovative ways to bring down the time of actual operation of mine after it is put up for auction, thus enabling the sector to make a quantum jump, he stressed.

Addressing the industry’s concerns, the Minister said that high value, strategic and import substitution minerals were the priority minerals for exploration for making India self-sufficient in minerals.

Goyal said that 20 to 40 junior exploration companies specializing in mining could be invited to India and a system could be worked out to benefit all the stakeholders.

However, he added that the final decision on this would be taken by the Ministry.

He assured the industry that the issue of wide differences in stamp duty in various states would be addressed by the Government in consultation with the State Governments.

Also, mapping would be undertaken and data on minerals would be updated for making an accurate assessment of mineral reserves in the country.

The conference was organized by FICCI jointly with the Ministry of Mines.

A FICCI-KPMG report titled, ‘Mines & Minerals Development: Way Forward’ was unveiled by the Minister. fii-news.com