The Central government has called off the auction of over half of the 21 critical mineral blocks offered in the fourth round of bidding due to inadequate participation, as per the Ministry of Mines. Eleven blocks failed to meet the required minimum of three technically qualified bidders, necessary to proceed with the auction process.

A marginal improvement was noted after a second round of bidding allowed two blocks, initially lacking bidders, to progress and be auctioned with just one technically qualified bidder, bringing the total successful auctions to 10 blocks. However, four blocks attracted no bids, and seven others failed to secure the minimum qualified bidders in the first round.

The auction included diverse critical mineral blocks - glauconite, rare earth elements (REE), copper, gold, tungsten, phosphorite, limestone, nickel, platinum group elements (PGE), potash, and halite. These were located across states like Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Since the initiation of critical mineral auctions, the government has successfully auctioned 24 out of 49 blocks, achieving a success rate of 48.98 percent. This includes four mining lease (ML) blocks and 20 composite license (CL) blocks. One tungsten block in Tamil Nadu remains unresolved due to legal disputes between the state and the Central government.