Sand, gravel, ordinary clay, building stone — India’s most commonly quarried materials aren’t controlled from Delhi. A single law splits the job of regulating them between the Centre and the states.
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Who Regulates Minor Minerals?
A split job between Centre and states
Centre’s JobNotifies which minerals count as “minor”
State’s JobMakes rules for leases and concessions
Governing LawMMDR Act, 1957
ExamplesSand, gravel, ordinary clay, building stone
Did you know? States can’t enhance royalty or dead rent on a minor mineral more than once every three years.
🏛️ Must Know
A Job Split Between Centre and State
- MMDR Act, 1957 The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 is the central law that governs mining regulation across India, covering both major and minor minerals.
- States Make the Rules Under Section 15 of the Act, State Governments have the power to make rules regulating the grant of quarry leases, mining leases, and other concessions for minor minerals located within their territory.
- Centre Defines “Minor” The Central Government has the separate power to notify, by law, which minerals count as “minor minerals” in the first place — a classification decision, not a rule-making one.
- What Counts as Minor Common minor minerals include building stone, gravel, ordinary clay, ordinary sand (other than sand used for prescribed purposes), and boulders — typically low-value, locally consumed materials.
🏘️ Good to Know
How the Split Actually Works
- Not a Contradiction States regulating minor minerals and the Centre defining what “minor mineral” means are two separate, complementary powers — not a conflict. The Centre sets the category; the states run the leasing system within it.
- Royalty and Dead Rent A lease holder for a minor mineral pays royalty or dead rent, whichever is higher, to the State Government — and the state cannot raise that rate more than once in any three-year period.
- Major Minerals Differ Major minerals — coal, iron ore, bauxite, and similar high-value minerals — are regulated far more directly by the Central Government, including through central rules on lease grants and royalty rates.
⚡ Great to Know
Why Minor Minerals Matter
- Local but Large-Scale Minor minerals feed the construction industry directly — sand, gravel, and building stone are the raw material behind most roads, homes, and buildings, making their regulation a constant local governance issue.
- Illegal Sand Mining Because minor minerals like river sand are cheap and in high demand, unregulated or illegal sand mining is a recurring environmental and law-and-order problem across several Indian states, often prompting stricter state-level enforcement rules.
- Federal Design This Centre-state split reflects a broader pattern in India’s federal structure — the Centre sets a uniform national framework, while implementation and local resource management are left to the states closest to the ground.
Test Yourself
📝 Previous Year Question
UPSC CSP 2025 — Minor Mineral Regulation Statements
- UPSC 2025 Statement I is incorrect — State Governments do have power under Section 15 of the MMDR Act, 1957 to make rules for minor-mineral concessions within their territory. Statement II is correct — the Central Government does have the power to notify which minerals are classified as minor minerals. See UPSC CSP 2025 GS Paper I, Q89.
UPSC CSP 2020 — Which of These Are Major Minerals
- UPSC 2020 Chromite, Kyanite, and Sillimanite are all officially designated major minerals in India. Bentonite, by contrast, is classified as a minor mineral.
- Answer: (d) 2, 3 and 4 only.
- View this question on the full 2020 paper →
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