India’s Critical Minerals

India’s Critical Minerals

Context:

• In a strategic move, the Centre has identified 30 critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, tin and copper, which are essential for the country’s economic development and national security.
• This was done on the basis of a report on critical minerals prepared by an expert team constituted by the Ministry of Mines last November.

Critical minerals:

• These are minerals that are essential for economic development and national security.
• The lack of availability of these minerals or the concentration of extraction or processing in a few geographical locations could potentially lead to “supply chain vulnerabilities and even disruption of supplies”.
• This is true for minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, titanium, and rare earth elements, which are essential for the advancement of many sectors, including hightech electronics, telecommunications, transport, and defence.
• One of the definitions cited in the report characterises a mineral as critical when the risk of supply shortage and associated impact on the economy is (relatively) higher than other raw materials.

Based on 3 stage process, a total of 30 minerals were found to be most critical for India, out of which two are critical as fertiliser minerals: Antimony, Beryllium, Bismuth, Cobalt, Copper, Gallium, Germanium, Graphite, Hafnium, Indium, Lithium, Molybdenum, Niobium, Nickel, PGE, Phosphorous, Potash, REE, Rhenium, Silicon, Strontium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Vanadium, Zirconium, Selenium and Cadmium.

Uses of Critical Minerals:

1. clean technologies initiatives such as zero-emission vehicles,
2. wind turbines,
3. solar panels;
4. information and communication technologies,
5. including semiconductors
6. advanced manufacturing inputs
7. defence applications,
8. permanent magnets,
9. ceramics

Syllabus: Prelims; Geography