Post-Lease Clearances: Streamlining the Time-Cost

Abstract

India is a mineral-rich country. While mining is essential to the development of the Indian economy, it is associated with costs to the environment and the local communities. There are four major steps in the mining lifecycle – granting the mining lease; obtaining the relevant licences and permits; producing minerals; and end-of-life practices, such as mine closures. This paper focuses on the second stage of the mining process, that is, obtaining the relevant licences and permits. This stage also includes addressing the issues of displacement and rehabilitation of the local communities through public hearings. The paper discusses three case studies on Jharkhand, Odisha and Karnataka to highlight procedural problems with these regulations. Based on the observations related to the case studies and the procedural norms involved, several regulatory reforms including pre-embedded clearances, social impact assessment and single-window processes are suggested. These recommendations focus on bridging the gap between the regulatory policies and long-term sustainable mining practices.