There shall be following general conditions for grant of mineral concession:-
(i) the Government may decide the mode and nature of grant of Mineral Concession under these rules in different areas i.e. lease, contract, permit etc. from time to time;
1[Provided that mineral concession in the Government land except in the case 2[of renewal or] wherein the „Letter of Intent‟ has already been issued shall be granted through bidding;
Provided further that in case of construction of hydel projects, road(s) and tunnel
(s) etc. mineral concession over the Government land can be granted for captive use, even without bidding.]
(ii) no river or stream bed mining shall be carried on or allowed to be carried on within two hundred metres upstream and downstream of water supply/ irrigation scheme and within two hundred metres upstream and two hundred metres to five hundred metres downstream of bridge or the distances as specified by the Joint Inspection Committee whichever is more.
(iii) no quarrying operations or mining shall be carried on or permitted to be carried on by a Mineral Concession holder upto any point within five metres from the outer periphery of adjoining land as a safety zone in case of hill slope mining;
(iv) the depth of mining in the river bed shall not exceed one metre or water level whichever is less:
Provided that where the Joint Inspection Committee certifies about excessive deposition or over accumulation of minerals in certain reaches requiring channelization, it can go upto two metres on defined reaches of the river.
(v) mining site shall only be handed over to the lease holder, after it is duly demarcated by permanent boundary pillars and certified by concerned Mining Officer;
(vi) junction at take off point of approach road with main road shall be developed with proper width and geometrics required for safe movement of traffic by concession holder at his own cost and in consultation with Executive Engineer, H.P. Public Works Department;
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1. Inserted by Amendment Rules, 2018 vide Notification No. Ind-II(F)6-14/2014-Vol-I dated 06.04.2018.
2. Added by Corrigendum No. Ind-II(F)6-14/2014-I dated 24.04.2018, published in Rajpatra, Himachal Pradesh dated
04.05.2018 in both language i.e. Hindi & English, pp 996-997.
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(vii) no concession holder shall store/stack any material in the acquired width of PWD road without the specific permission of the competent authority;
(viii) dumping of waste shall be done in earmarked places as per the proposals in the Mining Plans;
(ix) no mining shall be allowed in forest land without permission from the Competent Authority of Forest Department including any other land where there is growth of trees;
(x) no mining shall be allowed in areas, which may cause aesthetic/visual degradation near any known tourist spot;
(xi) no mining shall be allowed where it is likely to cause danger to site of culture, religious, historical, archeological or scenic importance;
(xii) no mining shall be allowed near habitation, where it is likely to cause noise beyond the permissible limit and vibration problems, due to blasting or operation of machinery;
(xiii) no mining shall be allowed where proper disposal of mine waste cannot be arranged;
(xiv) conditions shall be imposed that the concession holder will take adequate steps to control and check soil erosion, debris flow etc. by raising various engineering structures;
(xv) in case of hill slope, no mining lease shall be granted where the ore to overburden ratio is not economical i.e. 1:0.2 that is the waste generation shall not be more than 20%;
(xvi) proper appraisal of the deposit for its qualitative and quantitative assessment shall be made in the form of Geological and topographical plans;
(xvii) in case of hill slope mining, the area shall not be highly jointed, fractured or consisting of weak planes and relation of slope angle to angle of repose shall be within mining parameters as per Metalliferous Mines Regulation, 1961;
(xviii) no mining shall be allowed where subsidence of rocks is likely to occur due to steep angle of slope;
(xix) no overhangs shall be allowed to be formed during the course of mining;
(xx) the gradient of approach roads shall be gentle with hill-ward slope, side drains and parapet walls. Adequate number of waiting and crossing points shall be provided for safe plying of vehicles; and
(xxi) no blasting shall be resorted to without taking proper licence under the Explosive Act, 1884:
Provided that the Competent Authority may relax any of the above conditions, wherever required in the interest of mineral conservation and development.
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CHAPTER-III DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION OF MINERAL