The report takes a deep dive into the role played by various contractors in the coal mining market with specific focus on the Mining contractors, MDOs and AMMs. It highlights the need for sharing the developmental market risk between mine owners and mine operators and, thereby, the importance of wisely defined contractual terms and eligibility criteria. It looks at some of the active mining contractors and compares their financial and technical competencies, studies the past tenders from the point of view of technical and financial qualifications sought as eligibility criteria and arrives at some remarkable trends. It also discusses in detail the reasons of delays/ non-operationalization of mines/ non-fulfillment of several requirements, impact of such delays on appropriation of the performance security submitted by the mine owner to Ministry of Coal and clauses in the tender document and mining agreement which require specific focus to avoid this value loss.