WebinarsNew
Deep DiveNew
Explore Business Standard
The government has cancelled the auction of nine critical and strategic mineral blocks, citing poor investor response and lack of qualified bidders. These blocks were put on the block in the seventh round of sale. The development comes as a setback to the government's efforts to ramp up domestic exploration and production of critical minerals that are central to the country's push for energy security, clean-tech manufacturing and cutting down dependence on imports. It also reflects the challenge of drawing private investment into riskier mineral assets, where technical complexities, higher capital costs and regulatory uncertainties tend to dampen bidding interest. The government had cancelled several critical and strategic mineral block auctions in the previous rounds as well -- 11 blocks in the sixth round, five in the fifth, 11 in the fourth, three in the third, 14 in the second and 13 in the first tranche. "Since there were nil bids... the auction process for... two mineral bloc
TEXMiN Foundation, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad on Friday said it has signed a pact with the University of Pretoria, South Africa, for research collaboration in the field of critical minerals, rare earth element processing, recycling, extraction technologies and advanced mining innovation. Under the partnership, the two institutions will jointly undertake research, technology development and academic exchange programmes, and identify collaborative projects in sectors linked to lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel, manganese, aluminium, copper, rare earth elements (REEs), battery materials and other critical minerals. The partnership aims to jointly explore and develop technological solutions across the mining value chain while strengthening global cooperation in emerging critical mineral ecosystems. Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation (TEXMiN) is a company created under the aegis of the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) programme by the .
Two enormous sandlike dunes at an old chemical processing plant in South Africa are at the centre of an exploratory US-backed project to extract highly sought-after rare earth elements from industrial mining waste. The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project has US support through a USD 50 million equity investment by the government's International Development Finance Corporation and is part of accelerated US efforts to reduce reliance on economic rival China for the minerals crucial for making electronic devices, robotics, defence systems, electric vehicles and other high-tech products. Countries have identified dozens of minerals, including copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel, as critical because they are essential for new technologies. The 17 rare earth elements are a subset of them. President Donald Trump has made expanding US access to critical minerals, including rare earth elements, a central policy to counter China. The Trump administration said this year it will deploy nearly USD 12