Online rating for miners to kick off from next month

Ministry of Mines will soon come out with a Web-based rating system for mining activity based on which the miner will get either rewards or warning, a top official said on Thursday.

Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar also said the new Mineral Exploration Policy is expected to be launched next month after the Cabinet approval. The ministry will start issuing the rating from next month. "We have identified various indicators such as social, economic and environmental. We have assigned certain marks to these indicators. We will give five-star rating to the miner who gets maximum score out of 100. If somebody gets lesser rank, he would asked to improve within a timeframe. It will be on self-certification basis," Kumar told reporters.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark the signing of an MoU between Indian Bureau of Mines and National Institute of Smart Government. Kumar said NISG is in the process of developing a website for all the stakeholders to provide input data for the purpose of star rating. The ministry is also planning to use space technology to check illegal mining in the country.