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India needs to urgently bridge critical gaps in its mineral ecosystem to achieve self-reliance in clean energy and advanced manufacturing, said Vilas Tathavadkar, Chief Technology Officer, Hindalco Industries Ltd.
Speaking with ANI on the side lines of the Indian Mining Summit 2025 organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, Tathavadkar noted "There is a critical need for, I will say industry, academia and government to come together because we have gaps between the value chain." Highlighting the role of critical minerals in powering India's energy transition, EV adoption, and semiconductor ambitions, he highlighted that while India possesses key resources like gallium, vanadium, and tellurium as by-products of copper and aluminium production it lacks the infrastructure and capabilities to process them for high-end applications. "We have a gallium but we need to have a purification otherwise we cannot use it for semiconductor application. So we need to close these gaps in the ecosystem," he said. He also identified skilled human resources as one of the most pressing challenges facing the sector. "The most critical thing is the skill set. We don't have people in mining, metallurgy, which are very, very critical, whether it is an academic institute, whether it's the industry or even policymakers," he said, adding that these skillsets are not available and there is a need to address them. Tathavadkar called for coordinated efforts between industry, academia, and the government to build a sustainable pipeline of talent and knowledge. According to him, this is as vital a resource as the minerals themselves. Underscoring the urgency of the task, he said India cannot afford to take decades to build its mineral ecosystem. "Because we don't have a luxury of 50 years of development. We need to do it in very short time. So we need to have an entire ecosystem with startups coming up, international collaborations, and really meet this challenge in short time," he said. He added that policy reforms must go beyond mining and address the entire value chain, from exploration and purification to end-use applications, such as semiconductor manufacturing and battery storage. Emphasising the importance of recycling as a major untapped source of critical minerals, he said "We need robust systems for collection, segregation, and reintegration of used materials. Without this, we will remain dependent on imports." Tathavadkar pointed to Novelis, Hindalco's U.S. subsidiary, where aluminium beverage cans are recycled and returned to the shelf within 45 days, showcasing a closed-loop recycling system that India could replicate. He also cautioned against limiting production purely to domestic demand, which he said would make projects economically unviable. Instead, he called for a structured export policy that enables scale while protecting national interests. "So we need to have a structured export policy which helps industry to make it economically viable, at the same time protecting our interests," he added. (ANI)
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