- Auction to now take place between 2 Feb-6 Mar’26
- Tungsten previously mined in Rewat until 1990s
The government has announced a revised timeline for the auction of the Rewat-Amba-Maton-Balda (RAMB) tungsten-lithium block in Nagaur district, Rajasthan. The auction, part of the sixth tranche of critical minerals offered by the Ministry of Mines, will now take place between 2 February and 6 March 2026.
Located in Rewat village, about 4 km west of Degana town, the RAMB block has deposits of primarily tungsten, with lithium and rubidium, niobium, and tin as associated minerals. In 2023, after the Geological Survey of India (GSI) assessed its reserves, considerable interest had been generated, similar to the excited response to the Salal-Haimna lithium block in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the geologist BigMint spoke to explained that the RAMB deposit was primarily tungsten, and it would be up to the eventual miner to decide on the commercial viability of also processing lithium and associated critical minerals.
Rewat has a long mining history, dating back to before India’s independence. Tungsten was extracted extensively through operations from this site to supply the British for ammunition during World War I. Mining continued until the 1990s, when China flooded global markets with cheap tungsten.
During the earlier rat-hole mining operations, tailing would be dumped on the hill slopes and foothills where they still lie scattered. Notably, a study published in 2023, by Suresh Kumar, Shishir Bhardwaj, Achman Sharma, and Vivek Sharma, had tested samples of the tailing dumps from Rewat hill containing veins of greisenised granite, pegmatite, and quartz-mica-wolframite at lab scale for potential extraction of W-Li and associated rare metals.
GSI has explored the 154.74-hectare area at the G2 level, identifying mineralised veins with a 1,750-m strike length containing tungsten, lithium, rubidium, niobium, and tin.
Indicated mineral resources (with reasonable geological confidence based on general exploration)
Note: W stands for Wolfram, tungsten’s alternate name; Sn is the chemical symbol for tin, from its Latin name, Stannum
Geologists who are familiar with the deposit say the project could emulate the recent revival of the historic tungsten mine of Mount Carbine in Far North Queensland, Australia. A major producer of tungsten in the 1970s and 1980s, the Mount Carbine mine had been abandoned until 2019. It has been revived by EQ Resources, which is taking a two-stage approach, with the first stage involving mining and processing the historic stockpile. Open pit mining only began thereafter, in the second stage in June 2023.
Auction timeline
The government has called for technical bids and initial price offers by 5 pm IST on 3 February 2026. Technical bids will be opened on 5 February, with qualified bidders announced between 24 February and 5 March. The preferred bidder will be selected by 6 March 2026.
Other tungsten deposits
The government has auctioned two tungsten deposits. The Balepalyam Tungsten and associated mineral block in Andhra Pradesh was bagged by Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL). HZL had also won another tungsten deposit in Tamil Nadu, but that auction was annulled to protect a nearby biodiversity site.
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