By Aggam Walia
The Ministry of Mines was forced to scrap the auction for the lithium block in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K’s) Reasi district for the second time, following weak investor response.
This comes nearly 18 months after then Mines Secretary Vivek Bharadwaj announced the discovery of an inferred deposit of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore, pitched as among the largest deposits in the world, in Reasi last February.
As officials weigh the need for further exploration before attempting another auction, last year’s optimism has given way to a sobering reality.
Why were the auctions scrapped?
The first auction was annulled on March 13 after less than the required minimum of three bidders cleared the first round. The very next day, the Mines Ministry put the block for auction again.
This too was annulled last week, after failing to clear the first round despite the minimum bidder requirement being waved off this time around, as per auction rules. The second attempt saw no qualified bidders at all.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
