India expects starting 50-60 greenfield mines this year: Mines Secretary

India expects to operationalise up to 60 new mines in the current fiscal, union mines secretary Piyush Goyal said Tuesday. Addressing the Materials Recycling Association of India (MRAI)’s conference, he said 36 mines including 28 greenfield mines were operationalised in 2025-26. Speaking to journalists at sidelines, the secretary said bids for setting up Nickel and Lithium processing units will be called in the next three months.

"We are confident of operationalising 50 to 60 greenfield mines in this current year,” Goyal said, adding 58 greenfield mines have been operationalised since the auction regime began in 2015.

The secretary said policies have been prepared for extracting critical minerals. “We are implementing the same and getting excellent results,” he said, adding significant quantity of cadmium is now being generated a through recovery and recycling in the country.


Goyal said the target to 1200 exploration projects by 2031 will be achieved ahead of time. “About 571 exploration projects have been completed by Geological Survey of India (GSI), 300 more are waiting to be completed this year. We hope to target more than 2000 projects by 2031,” he said.

Against the target of 100 exploration blocks for the private sector in 2031, 56 blocks have already been already auctioned and the centre hopes to cross 200 by the time this period ends.

Commenting on progress of rare earth localisation, he said, “Our expectation is that by 2030, India will have more than its own requirements of rare earth elements like Zirconium and Titanium, and we will start exporting products made from these critical minerals in the next decade.”

The centre is also readying a scheme for setting up Lithium and nickel processing units. Goyal said bids are expected in the coming three months under the new scheme.