 "Govt to invest nearly $2 billion to develop critical minerals sector")
India's mines ministry has earmarked nearly $2 billion to develop its critical minerals sector as the world's fastest-growing major economy aims to secure raw materials such as lithium, according to a source and documents from the ministry.
In 2023, India identified 30 minerals, including lithium, as "critical" for its energy transition efforts and to meet the growing demand from industries and the infrastructure sector.
The country otherwise relies on imports to meet its rising demand.
Out of the proposed funding of Rs 16,300 crore ($1.9 billion) to develop the critical minerals sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet is likely to initially approve more than $300 million this week, said the source, who is directly aware of the matter and asked to remain unidentified as the deliberations were not public.
Of the total funding, the state-run National Mineral Exploration Trust will contribute Rs 8,700 crore, the federal Department of Science and Technology Rs 1,000 crore, and the government-backed exploration agency Geological Survey of India Rs 4,000 crore, according to documents from a Ministry of Mines presentation to the government that were reviewed by Reuters and confirmed by the source.
The mines ministry did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comments.
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The proposed funding illustrates India's efforts to help the critical minerals industry take off and gradually reduce its reliance on imports of minerals such as lithium, which are key to energy transition technologies, the source said.
The source said the government has not yet finalised the details of the incentive programme.
India is still in the process of developing lithium processing technology, a sector predominantly led by China.
New Delhi has already reached out to a host of countries, including Australia, Russia and the United States to seek technical help to develop lithium processing technology.
In late 2023, India launched the first round of its critical minerals auction and continued offering mineral blocks for development throughout 2024. New Delhi managed to secure bids for only half of the 48 critical mineral blocks auctioned since November 2023. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)