Cabinet okays commercial mining of lithium, titanium

New Delhi: The union cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act allowing commercial mining of lithium and a few other minerals, said officials with knowledge of the development.

The amendments will lift the ban on commercial mining of six critical minerals —lithium, beryllium, titanium, niobium, tantalum and zirconium. These minerals are required for manufacturing in several sectors, including electric vehicles, batteries, glassware, automotive components, defence machinery, telecommunication equipment, capacitors, super alloys, carbides and medical technology. India is seeking to become a manufacturing hub and reduce import dependence of several minerals used in manufacturing. All of India’s lithium requirement is imported from countries such as Chile, Russia, China, Ireland and Belgium. Berrylium is sourced from Russia, the UK, Netherlands, South Africa and China.

The development comes just weeks after a committee set up by the Union ministry of mines declared 30 minerals as ‘critical’ for the country, including these six minerals. Critical minerals refer those that are at risk of supply shortage, which may have a larger impact on the economy compared to that of other raw materials.

So far, most of the exploration in the country has been focussed on bulk commodities like limestone, coal and iron ore. With new requirements in technology and energy transition, there is a growing demand for these critical minerals, prompting the government to focus on the exploration of deep-seated and critical minerals.

Among these minerals, the demand for lithium has grown manifold in the past few years, as the focus has shifted towards electric mobility and grid scale battery storage amid India’s energy transition. The government has also come up with a production-linked incentive scheme for advanced chemistry cells. Another for niche batteries manufactured with newer chemistries is also in the works.

The Geological Survey of India has found the presence of significant lithium reserves totalling 5.9 million tonnes in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir. Another reserve has been found in Rajasthan.

The proposal comes at a time when the Centre is also working on a policy on critical minerals. Queries mailed to the spokespeople of the union ministry of mines and the cabinet secretariat remained unanswered till press time.In a recent interview to Mint, the union minister for coal and mines, Pralhad Joshi had said that after the recent lithium finds in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has begun six projects on lithium investigation in Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh.

To achieve self-reliance, GSI has given thrust on exploration of various metallic and non-metallic minerals throughout the country. As I have said earlier, emphasis has been given to various critical and strategic minerals like molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, lithium, among others, where the domestic demand is import-dependent and where efforts have been put for increasing self-sufficiency and self-reliance by taking more exploration projects. GSI has taken up 117 projects on critical and strategic elements during field season FY24.