India steps up exploration for critical minerals, including lithium

Subject: Geography

Section: economic geography

Context:

India has stepped up its exploration for critical and strategic minerals, including lithium, rare earth elements, and vanadium, among others.

Details:

Minerals such as antimony, cobalt, gallium, graphite, lithium, nickel, niobium, and strontium, among others, are critical for green technologies, high-tech equipment, aviation, and national defence manufacturing needs.
India has a high import dependence for many of these minerals.

Rare Earth Elements (REEs):

There are 17 REEs — 15 lanthanides (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium; neodymium, promethium; samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium), scandium, and yttrium. The lanthanide elements are divided into two groups — light and heavy.
REEs are used in industrial applications including electronics, clean energy, aerospace, automotive and defence.
The manufacture of permanent magnets is the single largest and most important end-use for REEs, accounting for 43 per cent of demand in 2021.

Exploration of REEs:

The explorations are spread across states like Chhattisgarh (Raigarh), Maharashtra (Nagpur, Chandrapur, and Sindhudurg), Bihar, Jharkhand (Giridh, Simdega, and Koderna), Odisha (Nayagarh, Ganjam, and Angul), West Bengal (Purulia), Arunachal Pradesh (Kurung Kumey), Assam (West Karbi Anglong), Meghalaya (South West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi), Uttar Pradesh (Lalitpur and Sonbhadra), Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur, East Godavari, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Chittoor, Annamayya, Nellore, and Prakasam), Kerala (Kottayam, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Wayanad), Telangana (Bhadradri and Jayashankar), Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari), Karnataka (Chamarajanagar), Gujarat (Chhota Udepur, Aravalli, Mehsana, and Banaskantha), and Rajasthan (Alwar, Udaipur, Sirohi, and Barmer), among others.

Lithium exploration:

Lithium, a non-ferrous alkali mineral, is in demand for the lithium-ion batteries needed to run electric vehicles.
It is vital to India’s EV transition in the public and private transportation space.
India’s only lithium find has been in Resai, to the tune of 5.9 million tonnes (mt).
Lithium exploration projects are underway in at least three states, including Korba district in Chhattisgarh; South Garo Hills and East Garo Hills in Meghalaya; and Jammu, Ramban, Resai, Rajoury and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mineral Exploration and Consultation Ltd is carrying out exploration for lithium and potassium (under the National Mineral Exploration Trust) at the Merak block in the Union Territory of Leh.

Other Critical Minerals:

Vanadium–
- It is an elemental metal, and is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer stabilises the free metal against further oxidation.
- Exploration for other minerals like vanadium is at the G4 stage in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala.
- Vanadium is used in nuclear reactors, spacecraft and aircraft.
Niobium:
- It is used in jet engines and rockets, girders and beams.
- Its explorations have restarted in West Bengal (Purulia) and Rajasthan (Jhunjhunu and Sikar).

Mineral Exploration and Consultation Ltd. (MECL):

MECL was established as an autonomous Public Sector Company in October 1972, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Mines, Government of India for systematic exploration of minerals, to bridge the gap between the initial discovery of a prospect and its eventual exploitation.
MECL has the Mission to provide high-quality, cost-effective and time-bound geo-scientific services for the exploration and exploitation of minerals.

National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET):

The NMET was established by the Government of India in 2015, in pursuance of subsection(1) of Section 9C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, with the objective of expediting mineral exploration in the country.