Science and Technology › Materials and nanotechnology

Critical minerals and rare earths

India's search for critical minerals and rare earths: auctions and finds at home, blocks and alliances abroad, recycling, and the refining that decides who controls supply. Prelims has asked about rare earths and the National Critical Mineral Mission, lithium in Chile, and monazite.

Foundation note: Critical minerals: the list, the law and the chain

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2025: rare earths in flat screens, and their phosphorescence

Critical minerals: Minerals essential to the economy and to national security whose supply is at risk, usually because refining is concentrated in a few countries.

rare earths: The seventeen metals, the fifteen lanthanides together with scandium and yttrium, used in magnets, electronics and defence.

midstream processing: Refining and separating ores into usable materials, the stage that sits between mining and manufacturing.

sintered rare earth permanent magnet: A magnet made by aligning rare earth alloy powder in a magnetic field, pressing it and heating it below its melting point until the grains fuse into a solid block.

lithium block: A demarcated area of ground licensed for lithium exploration or mining, which secures supply at the source rather than on the market.

fly ash: The fine residue left from burning coal in a thermal power plant.

red mud: The alkaline residue left after alumina is extracted from bauxite.

Also filed elsewhere

India's deep sea mining programme · on Ocean, polar and earth science missions
India's deep sea mining programme explores the seabed for minerals under three International Seabed Authority contracts.
Urban mining · on E-waste, battery and hazardous waste
Urban mining is recovering metals and critical minerals from electronics at the end of life.