PANAJI: Goa may choose the auction route in its bid to restart the state's stricken mining sector, where extraction of the ore has been stopped following a Supreme Court order in 2018, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday. "The Central government is for auction. There can be an auction too," Sawant said told reporters at the state secretariat here. A recent amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act also mandates auctioning as the norm for exploitation of major minerals. Sawant had returned from the national capital on Sunday after a series of meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister for Mines Prahlad Joshi, Union Minister for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan as well as Tushar Mehta to find a solution to the vexed mining issue in Goa. Sawant said that another option on the table vis-a-vis resumption of mining in Goa is to form a government corporation which would oversee mining activity in the state. (IANS)