India has introduced a comprehensive mining reform bill to expand mineral exploration, lift sales caps, and enhance operational flexibility, signalling a surge in efforts to secure strategic resources and boost mineral output.
India’s government introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday that would broaden how mining leases can be used, widen the funding role of a key mineral trust and lift a long-standing cap on captive mine sales, in a push to accelerate exploration for critical minerals. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 would revise the 1957 law with an emphasis on strategic resources and greater operational flexibility for leaseholders, according to ANI and the International Energy Agency.
One of the main changes would let holders of a lease for one mineral apply to add other minerals to the same licence. For critical and strategic materials such as lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, gold and silver, no extra payment would be due. For other minerals, the leaseholder would pay an amount equal to the royalty on that mineral, while auctioned mines would also face the relevant auction premium, unless the central government later alters the rules by notification, ANI reported.
The bill also seeks to expand the National Mineral Exploration Trust, which would be renamed the National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust and allowed to finance mine development as well as exploration. Reuters has not independently verified the bill’s passage, but earlier rule changes notified by the Ministry of Mines in 2025 already signalled the government’s intent to make it easier to add associated minerals, extend lease areas for deep-seated deposits and support critical-mineral output.
Another significant provision would remove the current limit that allows captive mines to sell only up to 50% of annual output after meeting their end-use needs. The bill would also authorise state governments to permit sales of mineral dumps within leased areas, create a framework for extending lease boundaries for deep-seated minerals and establish a regulator for mineral exchanges, which would oversee registration, fees, market conduct and dispute handling, according to ANI. The IEA said these reforms are intended to improve mineral production, encourage transparent trading and broaden India’s resource base.
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