India’s Critical Mineral List
Source : PIB
GS III : Indian Economy
Overview
- What are Critical Minerals?
Why in News ?
The list of Critical Minerals for India is about to be made public for the first time by the Government of India’s Ministry of Mines in order to assure less imports, improve supply chain resilience, and support the nation’s net zero goals.
Key Facts
- To ensure reduced import dependencies, enhance supply chain resilience and support the country’s net zero objectives.
- It will be a turning point in India’s quest for mineral resource security and independence.
- The list’s purpose is to identify and rank the minerals necessary for various industrial fields such high-tech electronics, telecommunications, transportation, and military.
- The list will act as a foundation for strategic planning, investment choices, and policy creation in the mining industry.
- The government’s commitment to building a strong and resilient mining industry is consistent with the bigger goal of reaching India’s “Net Zero” ambition.
What are Critical Minerals?
- Essential components of advance technologies, known as critical minerals, are at risk of supply chain disruptions.
Photo by Romain Virtuel on Unsplash - The essential components like mobile phones, computer, batteries, electric vehicles, green technologies etc. requires critical minerals for its manufacturing.
- Demand for these minerals will grow quickly as clean energy transitions gather pace.
- According to International Energy Agency Since 2010 the average amount of mineral resources needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50% as the share of renewables in new investment has risen.
- In order to hit net-zero globally by 2050, would require up to six times more mineral inputs in 2040 than today.
Special Minerals used for
- Materials are inputs for conventional industries, and many are essential for the high-tech goods needed for clean energy, national security, computer technology, aviation, and space exploration.
- Some of the minerals are Cobalt, Lanthanum, Lithium, Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Cadmium, Indium, Gallium, neodymium, Dysprosium, Terbium, Titanium etc.
- Among these there are eight minerals considered to be of greatest interest and these include lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, LREEs, HREEs, titanium and vanadium.
- LREE : Light rare earth elements
- HREE : Heavy rare earth elements
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