India steps up exploration for critical minerals, including lithium
- August 16, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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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.
Lithium exploration:
- Lithium, a non-ferrous alkali mineral, is in demand for the lithium-ion batteries.
- As per Geological Survey of India (GSI) the lithium exploration is underway in 3 states:
- Korba district in Chhattisgarh;
- South Garo Hills and East Garo Hills in Meghalaya; and
- Jammu, Ramban, Resai, Rajoury and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.
- India’s only lithium find has been in Resai, to the tune of 5.9 million tonnes (mt).
- The Mineral Exploration and Consultation Ltd — a public sector enterprise under the Union Ministry of Mines — is carrying out exploration for lithium and potassium (under the National Mineral Exploration Trust) at the Merak block in the Union Territory of Leh.
Lithium as ‘White Gold’:
- Due to its importance in technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage solutions.
- This nickname reflects its economic significance akin to traditional precious metals.
Rare Earth Element find:
- 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.
- Usage of REEs:
- Manufacture of permanent magnets is the single largest and most important end-use for REEs, accounting for 43 per cent of demand in 2021.
- Vanadium, an elemental metal, is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer stabilises the free metal against further oxidation.
- Niobium — used in jet engines and rockets, girders and beams.
Exploration across states:
- 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 (KurungKumey),
- 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.
GSI Assessment method and stages:
- Geological Assessment, which is more or less like the classification as per ISP adopted by GSI and other agencies in India.
- The process of geological assessment is generally conducted in stages of increasing details.
- The typical successive stages of geological investigation: Reconnaissance, Prospecting, General exploration and detailed exploration, Generate resource data with clearly defined degrees of geological assurance.
- The mineral extraction process typically begins with the G4 stage.
- These four stages are therefore used as geological assessment categories in the classification.
- The geological assessment has 4 codes i.e.
- Detailed Exploration (G1)
- General Exploration (G2)
- Preliminary Exploration (G3)
- Reconnaissance (G4)
- The G3 stage is further categorized into a six-step process to extract Lithium from Salt-flat brines or Mineral ores.
- Stage 1:Geological Surveys: Mapping on a more extensive scale and linking prepared maps with a top grid. Assessment of lithology, structure, surface mineralisation, analysis of old workings etc.
- Stage 2: Perform Geochemical sampling rock type wise, soil survey.
- Stage 3: Detailed ground geophysical work and borehole logging.
- Stage 4: Check the technicality of pits/trench to explore the mineralised zone and drill borehole spacing
- Stage 5: Sampling for litho geochemical from a well-known section, pit/trench and core sample
- Stage 6: Petrographic and mineralogical studies: the combined study of rocks in thin sections and the chemistry, crystal structure and physical properties of the mineral constituents of rocks.
- According to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), apart from the thorough examination of the above-mentioned geological axis, the proposal to mine minerals also needs to be assessed from a feasibility point of view along with the prospects of economic viability.
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 exploration and exploitation of minerals”.
National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET):
- The NMET was established by the Government of India vide Gazette Notification G.S.R.633(E) of 14th August 2015, in pursuance of subsection(1) of Section 9C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, with the objective to expedite mineral exploration in the country.
For details on critical minerals and its significance: https://optimizeias.com/critical-minerals/