Since the advent of the auction regime, Tamil Nadu government had not auctioned a single major mineral block in the last nine years. During 2021-2023, when the State had the powers to auction critical minerals, the State government did not do anything, the Union Ministry of Mines said in a release issued on Tuesday.

The ministry mentioned this while clarifying on the Auction of Nayakkarpatti Tungsten block in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.

The ministry said the Geological Survey of India (GSI) handed over the Geological Memorandum (GM) for Tungsten in Melur – Terkutteru – Muthuvelpatti Areas, Madurai District to Tamil Nadu government on September 14, 2021. Then the state government was empowered to auction all major minerals, including tungsten.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 was amended from August 17, 2023. This empowers the Centre to exclusively auction mining leases and composite licenses in respect of critical and strategic minerals, including Tungsten.

Based on this, the Ministry of Mines wrote to the Tamil Nadu government on September 15, 2023 about the auction of critical mineral blocks of State including the Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block. On October 3, 2023, Tamil Nadu’s Water Resource Minister questioned the amendment act passed by the Parliament and sought that power to auction the critical minerals also be vested with State Governments.

Three blocks

The State government on February 8, 2024 gave information on three blocks, including Nayakkarpatti and informed about the existence of the biodiversity site covering an area of 193.215 Ha but did not recommend against the conduct of auction of this block, the ministry said.

The Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block was proposed for the auction as Composite Licence in February, 2024 and was notified again for auction as second attempt in June 2024. It was successfully auctioned with Hindustan Zinc Ltd. being declared as the preferred bidder on November 7, 2024.

When the block was initially put up for auction in February 2024, until the auction result was declared on November 7, 2024, there was no communication from the State Government regarding any opposition or concerns about the auction, although Tamil Nadu attended several meetings with the Ministry of Mines on the issue during the period, the Ministry said.

However, after declaration of preferred bidder for this block, a number of representations have also been received against auction of this block on the ground that there is a biodiversity heritage site within the block area.

Therefore, GSI has been requested to re-examine the block and explore the possibility of redefining the block boundary by excluding the bio-diversity site area from the block. Further, the Government of Tamil Nadu has been requested to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent to the Preferred Bidder of the Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block on hold for time being, the Ministry said.

The DMK led the protest from the front with support from the main opposition AIADMK and even the local BJP urged the Centre not to proceed with the Tungsten project.