6th Tranche of Auction of Coal Mines for Commercial Mining, 2022

The 6th tranche of auction of coal mines for sale of coal was launched on November 03, 2022. The coal mines including the lignite mines are a mix of CMSP & MMDR, fully explored and partially explored Coking and Non Coking. The auction is held online through a transparent two stage process, on the basis of Percentage Revenue Share.

Twelve states are to benefit directly from auctioning of 141 coal mines. 133 coal mines were put up for auction in the 6th round of commercial auctions, out of which 71 are new coal mines and 62 coal mines are rolling over from earlier tranches of commercial auctions. Additionally, 8 coal mines under 2nd attempt of 5th round of commercial auctions were included for which single bids were received in the first attempt.

Mines falling under protected areas, wildlife sanctuaries, critical habitats, having forest cover greater than 40%, heavily built-up area have been excluded. The block boundaries of some of the coal mines where there was presence of dense habitation, high green cover or critical infrastructure have been modified.

Key features of the auction process include reduction in upfront amount and bid security amount, permission to relinquish part of the coal mine in case of partially explored coal mines, introduction of National Coal Index and National Lignite Index, ease of participation with no entry barriers, full flexibility in coal utilisation, optimized payment structures, incentives for early production, coal gasification and usage of clean coal technologies.