Delhi: Mines Ministry to organise outreach programme on critical minerals on Wednesday

According to a release from the ministry, the event to be held at the newly-built Bharat Mandapam will be attended by ambassadors and mission heads of various countries as well as representatives of businesses in India and other stakeholders.

The ministry is in the process of preparing a policy for critical minerals, which will include a road map for strengthening the supply chains. The strategy will also identify the responsibilities of different ministries in ensuring the resilience of the supply chain of critical minerals.

The Ministry of Mines is also preparing a strategy for recycling metals, which will help to augment the recycling capability and streamline the recycling process. and will also work with partner countries to co-develop mineral processing and raw material manufacturing capabilities.

Earlier this month, the Secretary at the Ministry of Mines, VL Kantha Rao, is in the process of auctioning 20 blocks of critical minerals, including lithium and graphite in the next two weeks.

India in June this year identified 30 critical minerals, taking into account its requirements for sectors like defence, agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, and telecom, and in line with its Atmanirbar (self-reliance) roadmap.

Those critical minerals were 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.

Critical minerals are those minerals that are essential for economic development and national security.

In recent years, the government has introduced important reforms to open the mining sector for private participation, in particular mineral exploration. Today, there are many accredited private exploration agencies empaneled to step up the pace of exploration in the country. (ANI)