Rare Earth Elements

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – The world is in search of alternative supply chains of rare earth elements. India with its rich reserves must leverage this

Concept –

To know about Rare Earth Elements, please refer June 2021 DPN.

India’s Current Policy on Rare Earth elements –

Exploration in India has been conducted by the Bureau of Mines and the Department of Atomic Energy. Mining and processing has been performed by some minor private players in the past, but is today concentrated in the hands of IREL (India) Limited (formerly Indian Rare Earths Limited), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy.
India has granted government corporations such as IREL a monopoly over the primary mineral that contains REEs: monazite beach sand, found in many coastal states.
IREL produces rare earth oxides (low-cost, low-reward “upstream processes”), selling these to foreign firms that extract the metals and manufacture end products (high-cost, high-reward “downstream processes”) elsewhere.
IREL’s focus is to provide thorium — extracted from monazite — to the Department of Atomic Energy.