What the law says

In MP, minor minerals (like murram, gitti, flagstone, granite, marble, sandstone, sand, road metal and other building materials) are governed by MP Minor Mineral Rules 1996. In MP, minor minerals have been divided into two categories — under schedule I they are used in construction after processing, while under schedule II, they are directly used in construction. In Jan 2016, Centre amended Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2006 to bring small mines less than 5 hectares under its ambit, making environmental clearance (EC) compulsory for mining of minor minerals. So scientific closure of small mines is now part of process. The EIA notification 2006 had broadly divided mining projects into two categories — Category A (mining area equal to or greater than 50 hectares) and Category B (mining area between five and 50 hectares)

Environment impact

assessment authority and district expert appraisal committee to grant EC to small mines equal to or below five hecatres and clusters of small mines upto 25 hecatres, with no single mine over five hectares