Critical minerals: Mines secretary flags exports; why lithium, nickel matter now | Business News

The development comes as the government has already identified four states — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra — to promote the setting up of critical mineral processing plants.

The secretary said the government is looking at every park as a complete ecosystem for a particular mineral. Accordingly, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are looking at rare earth processing, while Odisha and Maharashtra are set to focus on nickel and lithium, respectively.

Explaining the rationale, Chandra said Gujarat already has availability of heavy rare earth elements and has developed the beneficiation and processing technology. Andhra Pradesh, he said, has also been identified for developing a rare earth corridor.

Odisha is being considered for nickel as the state has its own nickel reserves and its location in eastern India could make it easier to process imported nickel from Indonesia and other countries, where the mineral is available in abundance, he said. “So, the entire ecosystem for a particular mineral is being developed in these four parts,” he added.

Notably, India has little processing capacity for critical minerals and is 100% import-dependent for some key critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, rare earth elements, (REEs) and silicon. At the same time, China controls 90% of global critical mineral processing.

‘Export of important mineral is matter of shame’

The secretary said that the government was concerned about blocks remaining non-operational despite being fully cleared. “Squatting is not going to help anybody. It’s speculation,” Chandra said, urging members of the industry to take the issue seriously.

He said the government’s mining reforms, including decriminalisation and efforts to address problems in existing laws and regulations, were aimed at increasing mineral production and ensuring the sector contributes to the country’s progress. “No government activity should promote speculation as such for the future,” he added.

On export of important minerals, he said nearly half of some important minerals that we import are already exported. “… we were looking at each and every mineral, 10 or 15 important minerals. Almost 50% of what we import is already exported. So, production is exported and we are importing,” he said.

This is despite countries across the world, including several African countries, moving towards restricting the export of minerals without beneficiation, he said.

“Somehow, in our country, some of the minerals are still getting exported. It’s a matter of shame for us. It’s not a happy thing,” Chandra added, asking the industry to introspect on this front.

Focus on Indigenous tech

Chandra further said the government is working towards acquiring critical minerals abroad that are not available domestically. KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd) has already struck a deal with Argentina for five blocks, he said, adding that progress had now started on the project.

“Those minerals which are not present in the country need to be brought in somehow or the other,” Chandra said. However, he cautioned that countries that have already developed technologies for processing and exploration of these minerals may not readily share them with India.

“Even if they give you technology, it will be a bit inferior, probably a stage one or stage two inferior,” he said. Some technologies, he added, are available for purchase but at a very high cost. Chandra stressed the need for closer collaboration between academia and industry to develop such technologies domestically.

He said the government was also focusing on strengthening Centres of Excellence for developing critical mineral technologies. While there had not been substantial progress in this area so far, Chandra said he was now focused on ensuring that some technologies were developed indigenously, particularly as the government was funding institutions for this purpose.