The Nayakkarpatti tungsten block in Madurai comprises six villages, including Arittapatti, a biodiversity heritage site, famous for its archaeological monuments. File | Photo credit: The Hindu

The Union mines ministry on Tuesday asked the Geological Survey of India (GSI) to re-examine the Nayakkarpatti tungsten block in Madurai, which comprises six villages, including Arittapatti, a notified biodiversity heritage site famous for its archaeological monuments .

He also suggested that the GSI explore the possibility of redefining the boundaries by excluding the biodiversity heritage site from the block, and requested the Tamil Nadu government to suspend the process of issuing letter of intent to the preferred bidder – Hindustan Zinc Limited. For now.

The decision was taken in view of the number of representations received against the auction of the block that includes Arittapatti. Further, the Union ministry alleged that although the Tamil Nadu government had informed it about the existence of a biodiversity site covering an area of ​​193,215 hectares – around 10 per cent of the total area of ​​the block – he did not recommend against auctioning the block.

“When the block was initially auctioned in February 2024, until the outcome of the auction was declared on November 7, 2024, there was no communication from the state government regarding any opposition or concerns regarding the auction, despite the fact that Tamil Nadu has attended several auction-related meetings of the Ministry of Mines,” an official press release said.

The GSI handed over the geological memorandum for Madurai district tungsten to the Tamil Nadu government in September 2021, as the state government was, at that time, empowered to auction all major minerals, including critical minerals such as tungsten. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 was amended in 2023, which empowers the Center to exclusively auction mining leases and composite licenses in respect of “critical and strategic minerals”, including minerals. tungsten, the statement said.

Based on this amendment, the Ministry of Mines wrote to the Tamil Nadu government in September 2023 regarding the auction of critical mineral blocks in the state, including the Nayakkarpatti tungsten block. However, in response, the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister questioned the amendment law passed by Parliament and demanded that the power to auction essential minerals should also be given to state governments.

“It is pertinent to note here that between 2021 and 2023, when the state had the power to auction critical minerals, Tamil Nadu did nothing. In fact, since the advent of the auction regime, Tamil Nadu has not auctioned a single major mineral block in the last nine years,” the statement added.