Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Amendment Act, 2021

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Kerala government has opposed the new set of proposed amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.

• The amendments are a breach of States’ rights as minerals come under the purview of States.
• The proposed amendments as anti-Constitutional and added that the proposals may lead to improper handling of strategically important minerals such as uranium by select private companies. 
• The main objection is against the sixth item in the note for consultation sent to the State governments that will empower the Centre to auction some minerals from the list of atomic minerals.
• Kerala strongly opposes the proposed amendment as State governments are the owners of the mines and minerals located within the territory of the State concerned, and under Entry 23 of List II of the Constitution and the Constitutional right of the State under Article 246(3), State Assemblies can make laws on such minerals.
• Any loss or leakage of the Monazite (being the primary source of thorium) and Rare Earth (occurring in association with Beach Sand Minerals) due to mineral processing would be significant loss affecting national security.
• Private monopoly companies should not be allowed to handle precious and strategically important minerals and the earlier stand of the Centre should not be changed.

Ownership of Mineral

• The State Governments are the owners of minerals located within the boundary of the State concerned, under the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and Mineral Concession Rules, 1960.
• However, for minerals specified in the First Schedule to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 approval of the Central Government is necessary.
• The Central Government is the owner of the minerals underlying the ocean within the territorial waters or the Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
• Schedule I contains minerals such as coal and lignite, minerals of the “rare earths” group containing Uranium and Thorium.

Atomic Minerals

• Uranium and Thorium are the main atomic minerals.
• Other atomic minerals are beryllium, lithium and zirconium.

Thorium

• Thorium is a chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90.
• It is one of only two significantly radioactive elements that still occur naturally in large quantities.
• Thorium is estimated to be about three to four times more abundant than uranium in the Earth’s crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sands.
• Monazite is a widely scattered on the Kerala Coast
• Thorium is predicted to be able to replace uranium as nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors.