New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- After a decision to fast-track environmental and forest clearance processes for critical minerals, all mining projects of atomic minerals and critical and strategic minerals notified in the first schedule (part B and D) of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act will be exempt from public hearings, the union environment ministry has said. All of these projects, irrespective of the lease area, will be appraised at the central level, the ministry added. Some of these reserves of strategic minerals are located in border areas up north where communities are concerned about the impact on the sensitive ecology of the region. On September 8, the ministry issued an office memorandum (OM) referring to an earlier OM d...