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हिन्दी — Read in HindiCritical 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
Showing 2 of 2 articles, those that changed from 1 July to 30 September 2026.Show all
Critical minerals
Copy link to Critical mineralsPrelims and Mains
LeadCritical minerals: the refinery problemAugust 2026
Why in news
August 2026 brought three developments on one problem: twenty bids came in under India's scheme for rare earth magnets, two pilot plants in Odisha were set to recover rare earths from industrial waste, and fresh data showed how tightly the refining of critical minerals is held by a few countries.
Background
- A mineral is critical when the economy and the armed forces cannot do without it and its supply can be cut.
- India's list of 2023 names 30 critical minerals, among them lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and the rare earths.
- The rare earths are 17 metals: the 15 lanthanides with scandium and yttrium.
- They are not rare in the ground; what is scarce is the capacity to separate and refine them.
The problem is at the refinery
- For copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and the rare earths, the top three refining countries held 86 per cent of the market in 2024.
- China leads the refining of 19 of 20 strategic minerals, and its 2025 export controls on rare earths reached industries from electric vehicles to defence.
- So midstream processing, and not reserves, decides whether a country is secure.
- In a supply shock a stockpile of processed material is the most useful, far more than a stockpile of ore.
Magnets: the finished product India cannot yet make
- A rare earth permanent magnet is what makes an electric vehicle motor small and efficient; wind turbines, electronics and defence use them too.
- Neodymium iron boron is the strongest permanent magnet in wide use.
- India's scheme, approved in November 2025, aims at 6,000 tonnes a year of integrated capacity, from rare earth oxide to finished magnet, shared among five firms chosen by global bidding.
Minerals from waste
- Fly ash, the residue of burning coal, and red mud, the residue of making alumina from bauxite, both carry rare earths.
- Two pilot plants in Odisha, with processes from the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology and support from National Aluminium Company (NALCO), will recover them.
- Recovery from waste adds to supply and reduces the waste itself.
India's own rare earth source
- Monazite, found in the beach sands of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, holds both rare earths and thorium.
- Because of the thorium, beach sand minerals are reserved for government companies, and exports go only through IREL (India) Limited.
The way forward
- Invest in processing and separation, since mining without refining only moves the dependence one step.
- Build stockpiles of processed material under the National Critical Mineral Mission.
- Scale up recycling and recovery from waste.
- Secure overseas supply through partnerships, while building capacity at home.
Prelims facts
- India's 2023 list has 30 critical minerals.
- Rare earths are 17 elements, including scandium and yttrium.
- Monazite yields thorium as well as rare earths; IREL handles it.
- Red mud comes from bauxite processing; fly ash from burning coal.
A mineral is called critical when an economy and its armed forces cannot do without it and the supply can be cut, which is a judgement about politics as much as geology. India's list of 2023 names 30, among them lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, the rare earths and the platinum group. For almost all of them the cut would come at the refinery rather than the mine: processed material, not raw ore, is what serves a country in a supply shock, so midstream processing rather than reserves decides resource security. The rare earths are the seventeen metals, the fifteen lanthanides with scandium and yttrium, used in magnets, electronics and defence.
What changed
20 Aug 2026LeadCritical minerals: the refinery problem
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: the Minerals Security Partnership and India's critical mineral endowment
MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 and the States' power to tax minerals
Copy link to MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 and the States' power to tax mineralsPrelims and Mains
LeadWho taxes minerals: the 2026 mining amendmentSeptember 2026
Why in news
The Act, passed in August 2026, has drawn protests in the Odisha Assembly, with mineral rich States saying it undoes a Supreme Court ruling in their favour.
- about ₹2 lakh croreunpaid dues from earlier State levies that the Act extinguishes
- 23 per centshare of minerals in Odisha's revenue receipts
- 90 per centshare of mining revenue that the Centre says will still go to States
Background
- Entry 50 of the State List lets States tax mineral rights, subject to any limits Parliament sets by a law on mineral development; Entry 49 lets them tax land.
- In India Cement (1989) the Supreme Court held that royalty is a tax, which kept States out of the field.
- On 25 July 2024 a nine judge Bench, in Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India, overruled it: royalty is not a tax, and mineral bearing land falls within the States' power to tax land.
- That ruling allowed dues from before the judgment to be recovered in instalments over 12 years from April 2026.
What the Act does
- Section 9D bars States from levying taxes or cesses on mineral rights or mineral bearing land except on conditions the Centre prescribes.
- It extinguishes the unpaid dues from earlier levies, and the Centre plans a cap on combined levies after consulting the States.
The Centre's case
- A predictable tax regime is needed for long term investment in mining.
- Many levies on the same mineral raise its cost and feed into inflation, and industry says the law gives fiscal certainty.
The States' case
- The law overrides the 2024 ruling and leaves mineral rich States bearing the costs of mining without the fiscal room to meet them.
- Odisha's opposition puts the loss at ₹12,000 crore a year.
From India Cement to Section 9D
1989
India Cement: royalty is a tax, so States cannot levy it
25 July 2024
nine judge Bench: royalty is not a tax; States may tax mineral rights and mineral bearing land
April 2026
recovery of past dues in instalments was due to begin
August 2026
the Amendment Act adds Section 9D and extinguishes the dues
The two cases
The Centre
- a predictable regime for long term mining investment
- many levies raise mineral costs and inflation
- 90 per cent of mining revenue still goes to States
The States
- the 2024 ruling is nullified
- mining's costs fall on States without the revenue to meet them
- minerals are 23 per cent of Odisha's revenue receipts
The open question
- Entry 50 expressly allows Parliament to limit taxes on mineral rights, but Section 9D also reaches land, which the 2024 Bench placed with the States under Entry 49.
- Whether a law on mineral development can limit a tax on land is the constitutional point on which the amendment will be tested.
Prelims facts
- Royalty is not a tax: Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India, 2024, nine judges.
- India Cement, 1989 was overruled.
- A mineral bearing land tax is a State levy on land that contains minerals, charged per tonne of mineral.
- Entries 49 and 50 are in List II, the State List.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 limits what States may levy on minerals.
- Its Section 9D bars a State from taxing mineral rights or mineral bearing land except on conditions the Centre prescribes.
- It follows a nine judge ruling of 2024, which held that royalty is not a tax and that States may tax both mineral rights and the land that holds minerals.
- The dispute is over which legislature holds the field: Entry 50 of the State List lets Parliament limit taxes on mineral rights, while Entry 49 gives States the tax on land.
What changed
25 Sep 2026LeadWho taxes minerals: the 2026 mining amendment
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.