Critical Minerals for India

Critical Minerals for India

News: Recently, the first ever report of the country on “Critical Minerals for India”, prepared by an expert team constituted by the Ministry of Mines was released.

What are critical minerals?
• Critical minerals are minerals that are essential for the economic development and national security of a country, but have limited availability and high supply risks.
• Different countries have identified their own lists of critical minerals based on their specific needs and priorities. For example, the US has 35 critical minerals, the EU has 30, Australia has 24 and Japan has 31.

What are critical minerals for India?
• Expert Committe under Ministry of Mines has identified a set of 30 critical minerals for India.
• The list comprises 30 minerals, including 17 rare earth elements (REEs) and six platinum-group elements (PGE), each designated as critical based on their economic importance and limited availability in India’s geological reserves.
• Some of the minerals are antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, PGE, phosphorous, potash, REE, rhenium, silicon, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium, and cadmium.

Which minerals are listed as 100% import dependent?
• Lithium cobalt, nickel, vanadium, niobium, germanium, rhenium, beryllium, tantalum, and strontium.

What is the importance of Critical minerals for India?
• Critical minerals are required to meet the manufacturing needs of green technologies, such as zeroemission vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and hydrogen.
• Critical minerals are also vital for information and communication technologies, such as semiconductors, high-end electronics, telecommunications and digital infrastructure.
• Critical minerals are also key for advanced manufacturing inputs and materials, such as defence applications, permanent magnets, ceramics, alloys and superconductors.
• These materials are important for India to strengthen its national security and strategic capabilities in sectors like defence, space and nuclear energy.

What are the challenges India faces in securing supply of Critical minerals?
• It is largely dependent on imports from other countries, especially China.
• India also lacks adequate exploration, mining, processing and recycling capacities for critical minerals.
• India has limited reserves for critical minerals and over-reliance on imports comes with cost of increased price fluctuations, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical concerns.
• However, India can look to diversify our source of supply of minerals from different countries. India’s recent agreement with US over joining Minerals supply partnership is a right step and bilateral agreements can be made with countries (Australia, Chile, South Africa) who have rich reserves of critical minerals.

What recommendations were given by committee?
• Set up a national institute or a centre of excellence for critical minerals
• A wing in the Ministry of Mines can be established as a Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals (CECM).
• The centre of excellence collaborates with international agencies or Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) for the strategic acquisition of foreign assets of critical minerals.
• CECM will also periodically update the list of critical minerals for India.
Source – PIB, Report of the Committee