The financial year 2025-26 (FY26) marked a notable achievement for India’s mining sector with the auction of 200 mineral blocks, the highest ever conducted in a single year. This accomplishment not only reflects the strong cooperative efforts between the Union and State Governments but also highlights the growing maturity of India’s auction-based mineral allocation framework. This milestone also reinforces India’s commitment to building a transparent, efficient, and future-ready mineral allocation system to support sustained economic growth.

The 200 auctioned mineral blocks include 123 Mining Lease (ML) blocks and 77 Composite Licence (CL) blocks, demonstrating a balanced mix of operational and exploration-focused opportunities. In addition, Notices Inviting Tenders (NITs) for 70 mineral blocks (38 ML and 32 CL) are currently underway, which is expected to further enhance the total number of successful auctions during the financial year.

State wise, Gujarat led with 32 blocks, followed by Rajasthan with 30 blocks, and Tamil Nadu with 22 blocks, emerging as the top contributors. Their efforts in timely block preparation, data management, and procedural efficiency have strengthened the national auction ecosystem. Notably, Tamil Nadu has successfully conducted mineral block auctions for the first time, marking an important milestone. Uttarakhand has also entered the mineral auction framework with the successful auction of its first magnesite block.