(1) Subject to the provisions of rule 19A, the State Government shall issue a notice inviting tender, including on their website, to commence the auction process and such notice shall contain brief particulars regarding the area under auction, including,—
(a) particulars of the area identified and demarcated, specifying its boundary latitude and longitude coordinates; and
(b) available geoscience data.
(2) The tender document issued by the State Government shall contain,—
(a) particulars of the area identified and demarcated, specifying its boundary latitude and longitude coordinates;
and
(b) information on available geosciences data.
(3) The bidders shall be provided a fixed period, as notified by the State Government, to study the tender document and such reports and the bidding process shall commence only on expiry of such period.
(4) The auction shall be a descending reverse online electronic auction and shall comprise of attempts of auction with each attempt of auction consisting of a first round of auction and a second round of auction.
(5) In the first round of auction, the bidders shall submit,– (A) a technical bid comprising amongst others, documentary evidence to confirm eligibility as per the provisions of the Act and the rules made thereunder to participate in the auction, bid security and such other documents and payments as may be specified in the tender document; and (B) an initial price offer which shall be a percentage share of the auction premium that shall be payable by the future lessee whose mining lease shall be auctioned pursuant to the prospecting operations undertaken under the exploration licence being auctioned.
(6) The bid security shall be submitted in the form of a bank guarantee or through security deposit and shall be for an amount equivalent to,—
(a) fifty lakh rupees for area less than or equal to five hundred square kilometers; and
(b) one crore rupee for area more than five hundred square kilometers but less than or equal to one thousand square kilometers.
18 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA : EXTRAORDINARY [PART II—SEC. 3(i)]
(7) Only those bidders who are found to be eligible in accordance with the terms and conditions of eligibility specified in rule 19B and whose initial price offer is equal to or less than the ceiling price, referred to as “technically qualified bidders”, shall be considered for the second round of auction.
(8) The lowest initial price offer amongst the technically qualified bidders shall be the limiting price for the second round of online electronic auction.
(9) The technically qualified bidders shall be ranked on the basis of the ascending initial price offer submitted by them and the technically qualified bidders holding the first fifty per cent. of the ranks (with any fraction rounded off to higher integer) or the top five technically qualified bidders, whichever is higher, shall qualify as qualified bidders for participating in the second round of electronic auction:
Provided that if the number of technically qualified bidders is between three and five, then all the technically qualified bidders shall be considered as qualified bidders:
Provided further that in the event of identical initial price offers being submitted by two or more technically qualified bidders, all such technically qualified bidders shall be assigned the same rank for the purposes of determination of qualified bidders and in such case, the aforementioned fifty per cent. shall stand enhanced to the extent of tie occurring within the first fifty per cent.
Illustrations
1. In the event there are a total of ten technically qualified bidders, and each technically qualified bidder submits different initial price offer, then the technically qualified bidders holding the first fifty per cent. of ranks shall be considered to be qualified bidders.
2. If three such technically qualified bidders submit the same initial price offer and are ranked in first fifty per cent. of the total number of ranks, then, all the three technically qualified bidders shall be considered to be qualified bidders and the total number of qualified bidders shall stand increased by two.
(10) Where the total number of technically qualified bidders is three or more, the auction process shall proceed to the second round of auction which shall be held in the following manner, namely:—
(iv) the qualified bidders may submit their final price offer which shall be a percentage share of the auction premium that shall be payable by the future lessee whose mining lease shall be auctioned pursuant to the prospecting operations undertaken under the exploration licence being auctioned and lower than the limiting price for the second round:
Provided that the final price offer may be revised by the qualified bidders till the conclusion of the auction as per the technical specifications of the auction platform;
(v) The auction process shall be annulled if none of the qualified bidders submits a final price offer on the online electronic auction platform;
(vi) The qualified bidder who submits the lowest final price offer shall be declared as the “preferred bidder” immediately on conclusion of the auction.
(11) Where the total number of technically qualified bidders is less than three, then no technically qualified bidder shall be considered to be qualified bidder and the first attempt of auction shall be annulled.
(12) On annulment of the first attempt of auction, the State Government may decide to–
(a) commence the auction process de novo with a separate set of terms and conditions and ceiling price as it may deem fit and necessary; or
(b) conduct the second attempt of auction.
(13) In case the State Government decides to conduct the second attempt of auction as specified under sub-rule (12), the terms and conditions of the second attempt of auction shall remain the same as in the first annulled attempt of auction:
Provided that the lowest initial price offer of the technically qualified bidders if any in the first annulled attempt shall be the ceiling price in first round of the second attempt:
Provided further that the bidding shall continue to the second round even in case the number of technically qualified bidders is less than three, and even in case of a single technically qualified bidder.