- India’s quest to tap domestic reserves of critical minerals may not deliver their full commercial benefits before 2031.
| Global Race for Critical Minerals China dominates the processing and refining of critical minerals, controlling between 65%-100% of the global capacity to make battery-grade lithium, cobalt, manganese, and graphite.India is parallelly looking at acquiring overseas assets from key resource-rich regions like South America, Australia, and Africa as an alternate measure to ensure mineral security.Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, a joint venture of public sector enterprises NALCO, Hindustan Copper, and Mineral Exploration Company, recently became the first domestic player to acquire overseas lithium brine assets in Argentina. |
It renders the country’s manufacturing plans vulnerable to supply shocks for minerals like lithium and cobalt whose global output is controlled by China, as per rating firm ICRA.
- The lack of critical mineral reserves deemed necessary for India’s green energy transition has resulted in 100% import dependence for minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
- The government recently began the process of auctioning 38 blocks of critical minerals.
- The quality and quantity of lithium resources discovered so far, including those in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), is inferior to other deposits in key producing regions of the world.
- While the Government is auctioning two lithium blocks in the ongoing auctions, the block in J&K has clay deposits, and the technology to extract lithium from them remains untested globally, ICRA said.
- The other lithium block being auctioned in Katghora, Chhattisgarh is a hard rock deposit that is expected to see higher competition, the rating agency reckoned.
Dig Deeper: Read about various states of India and respective critical mineral reserves found.
