The 2014 SC judgment requires the fresh leases to be issued as per policy. The Goa (Grant of Mining Lease) Policy 2014 was withdrawn in 2016. The mining restart is notable for the absence of any discernable policy.
Timeline
The Goa Mineral Policy 2013 (GMP) prioritizes dump mining over fresh mining. Dump mining reduces environmental problems and the GMP expects “to recover 1,000 acres of land for productive use.” Fresh mining creates fresh environmental damage. In 2020, the Goa government requested the SC permission to implement the recommendations of the Expert Committee on handling dumps. Finally in December 2022, the SC ordered the same.
After a long legal battle to extend the Portuguese era concessions, in 2021, the Goa government appointed the Mineral Exploration & Consultancy Ltd (MECL) to explore and prepare new mineral blocks for auction. Later in 2021, the Goa government created a Goa Mineral Development Corporation “to carry out mining operation in an orderly, scientific and ecological sustainable manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” In early 2022, the state began extending up to seven post-liberation mineral leases that could operate upto 2029. These leaseholders would not pay auction premia, in effect ensuring huge losses for the state, people and future generations.
However, instead of starting with dump mining, or preparing the new mineral blocks for auction, or allocating leases to GMDC, or proceeding with the seven post-liberation leases, the state government decided to auction off the 88 illegally renewed leases as is. There has been no explanation for this decision. Nor is there any explanation for why the four mineral blocks were chosen for the first auction, and why as “virgin” blocks. Or why the next five blocks were chosen for auction.
Tempo or Pace of selling off our family gold
One of the key elements of Norway’s management of their oil inheritance was a deliberately slow pace of extraction in order to learn to better manage both extraction as well as the mineral sale proceeds. The larger the number of active leases, the greater the management challenges.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered an interim cap on extraction of 20 million tons per annum (mtpa), which as the Economic Survey 2016-17 explained, was “to ensure the availability of minerals over several generations as well as to limit the environmental damage from permitted extraction.” Since dump mining would take priority over fresh mining for rational policy reasons, the available cap for fresh mining drops further. Within fresh mining, the cap has to be divided among mining by GMDC, the seven post-liberation leases and the auctioned blocks.
If we assume extraction at the interim cap of 20 mtpa, the known reserves on the first nine auctioned blocks of 233 million would take nearly 12 years to fully extract and sell. Further, the Chief Minister has indicated all 88 illegally renewed leases will be auctioned off immediately. Not only that, the state recovered another 159 leases after issuing notices under Rule 12(1)(hh) of the MCR. The stated aim is to auction off all these leases as well.
So how will the cap be allocated? In its response to bidders, the government said “The Government of Goa is in the process of developing the mechanism for allocation of maximum production limit (presently 20 mtpa) and the same will be updated shortly.” Surely a clear policy on the cap allocation must be a priority.
Design of the mineral blocks
One of the long-standing complaints about the Portuguese-era leases is their small size, which makes it difficult to create dumps within the lease. A further complaint is that with adjoining leases, the minerals under the lease boundary are stranded. Yet the first three mineral blocks auctioned in Shirgao-Bicholim share significant boundaries with each other. Surely it would have been better to have combined these blocks into a larger one? And exclude the village settlement area and Konkan railway from the block? Yet this was not done.
A similar situation arises with the second tranche of mineral lease auctions. Adjacent leases are being auctioned separately (5 – Advalpale-Thivim and 8 – Thivim-Pirna), while there is another adjacent lease (earlier TC 76/52) left for later.
The other three leases being auctioned in the second tranche are part of a large cluster of leases that ideally would be amalgamated prior to auction.
Integrity Due Diligence required
In 2014 the Supreme Court ruled that all mining after 22-Nov-2007 was illegal and ordered the state to issue fresh leases. India’s National Mineral Policy 2019 declares that “natural resources, including minerals, are a shared inheritance where the state is the trustee on behalf of the people to ensure that future generations receive the benefit of inheritance.” If minerals are a shared inheritance, illegal mining is effectively theft. Clearly, it is foolish to have known thieves managing the family gold.
The tender document for the recent auctions requires the bidder to assert in the bid letter that “I/We have not been convicted of illegal mining.” Many of the successful bidders have been ruled to be illegal miners by the Supreme Court in 2014. Yet they were all allowed to participate in the auctions. How can known illegal miners be allowed to manage our family gold?
Conclusion
The auctions of nine mineral block auctions have taken place without any policy in place, nor any public consultation. All kinds of options are on the table: dump mining, mining by GMDC, post-liberation leases and auctioned blocks. How the cap will be allocated isn’t clear. Why blocks are not amalgamated prior to acution isn’t clear. While the auctions have been successful on the face of it, we have known illegal miners in charge of mining our family gold. This is the state grasping at straws, trying to find any way to restart mining, disregarding its duties to our future generations.
What we need is a public discussion on whether we want mining to restart, and if so, with what priorities. From this would flow an update to the Goa Mineral Policy 2013, which is also required for dealing with dumps.