The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) is an Act of the Parliament of India, enacted on December 28, 1957, to provide for the development and regulation of mines and minerals under the control of the Union. Its origin lies in the need to establish a centralized, systematic, and scientific framework for national resource allocation, replacing haphazard operations and ensuring the development of minerals aligns with the public interest. The Act is the principal central law governing the mineral sector, though it does not apply to minor minerals or atomic minerals.
The core mechanism of the Act is the prohibition of any prospecting or mining operations without a valid license or lease, as stipulated in Section 4. Historically, concessions were granted through administrative allocation, but the landmark Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015, fundamentally changed this. This amendment mandated that all mineral concessions for notified and non-notified minerals must be allocated exclusively through transparent competitive bidding and e-auctions (Section 10B and Section 11).
The Act connects directly to the Ministry of Mines and established two key institutions: the District Mineral Foundation (DMF), which receives a fixed percentage of revenue for local area development, and the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET), which promotes non-coal mineral exploration. Recent changes include the MMDR Amendment Act, 2021, which removed the distinction between captive and merchant mines, and the MMDR Amendment Act, 2023, which introduced an Exploration Licence (EL) regime to encourage private sector participation in deep-seated and critical minerals. While the principle of Union control and the requirement for a license remain, the method of allocation has permanently shifted from discretion to auction.