(1) Subject to the provisions of rule 5, 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 using total station and differential global positioning system divided into forest land, land owned by the State Government, and land not owned by the State Government; and
(b) estimated mineral resources and brief particulars regarding evidence of mineral contents with respect to all minerals discovered in the area during exploration in accordance with the provisions of the Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Rules, 2015.
(2) The tender document issued by the State Government shall contain,-
(a) geological report pursuant to the Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Rules, 2015 specifying particulars and estimated quantities of all minerals discovered in the area; and
(b) revenue survey details of the area identified and demarcated using total station and differential global positioning system divided into forest land, land owned by the State Government, and land not owned by the State Government.
(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 an ascending forward online electronic auction and shall comprise of the following rounds, namely:-
(a) First Round of Auction to be held in the following manner, namely:-
(i) 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 of value of mineral despatched;
(ii) only those bidders who are found to be eligible in accordance with the terms and conditions of eligibility specified in rule 6 and whose initial price offer is equal to or greater than the reserve price, referred to as “technically qualified bidders”, shall be considered for the second round of auction;
(iii) the highest initial price offer amongst the technically qualified bidders shall be the floor price for the second round of online electronic auction;
(iv) the technically qualified bidders shall be ranked on the basis of the descending 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 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 auction process shall be annulled:
Provided further that the State Government may, in its discretion, decide not to annul the auction process if even in the third or subsequent attempt the total number of technically qualified bidders continues to be less than three and the State Government may, in such case, decide to consider the technically qualified bidders as qualified bidders so as to continue with the bidding process:
Provided also 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 also 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 fifty per cent. plus the number of technically qualified bidders, whose initial price offers are identical less the number of such identical initial price offers.
18 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA : EXTRAORDINARY [PART II—SEC. 3(i)]
Illustration:
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.
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.
(b) Second Round of Auction to be held in the following manner, namely:-
(i) the qualified bidders may submit their final price offer which shall be a percentage of value of mineral despatched and greater than the floor price:
Provided that the final price offer may be revised till the conclusion of the auction as per the technical specifications of the auction platform;
(ii) The auction process shall be annulled if none of the qualified bidders submits a final price offer on the online electronic auction platform;
(iii) the qualified bidder who submits the highest final price offer shall be declared as the “preferred bidder” immediately on conclusion of the auction.