The central government has set aside ₹16,300 crore from the exchequer. State governments will get money from the budget for critical minerals. State-owned enterprises will invest another ₹18,000 crore from their own resources. India has so far auctioned critical mineral mines in four tranches.
Some of the private sector companies with interests in critical minerals include Ola Electric, Hindalco, and GMDC, which were reportedly eyeing graphite mines in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Vedanta, SAIL, Tata Steel, and Adani Group were exploring similar opportunities in Australia, according to an Indian Express report in March 2024.
Over the last couple of years, the Narendra Modi administration has taken a series of steps to secure long-term supply of critical minerals. First, in November 2023, it classified at least 30 minerals as ‘critical’ and in the following 12 months, at least four rounds of auctions had concluded.
What are critical minerals?
The government’s list included antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, PGE, phosphorus, potash, rare earth elements (REE), rhenium, silicon, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium, and cadmium.
The mission’s mandate will include technology development, workforce training, an extended producer responsibility framework, and a suitable financing mechanism.
China controls 72% of the world’s solar modules, 69% of lithium-ion batteries and 45% of wind turbines and produces 63% of the world’s rare earth elements, including 45 per cent of molybdenum.
(Edited by : Sriram Iyer)
First Published: Jan 29, 2025 3:53 PM IS
