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Critical minerals and rare earths
Critical minerals and rare earths: which minerals count as critical and why their supply is at risk, mining and auctions, refining and magnets, assets abroad, recovery from waste, and stockpiles. Prelims has asked about rare earths and the National Critical Mineral Mission, lithium in Chile, and monazite.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: rare earths in flat screens, and their phosphorescence
Showing 3 of 8 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all
National Critical Mineral Mission
Copy link to National Critical Mineral MissionPrelims and Mains
The mission is India's umbrella programme for critical mineral security, covering exploration, processing, recovery and acquisition abroad. Its first instrument is the least glamorous one, holding stock against an interruption rather than producing more.
- ₹500 crore has been seeded under it for stockpiling.
What changed
11 Sep 2026
5 Aug 2026
The Hindu, 5 Aug 2026: Essential stockpiling for a mineral-driven future (opens in a new tab)
6 Jul 2026Update
- Indonesia holds the world's largest nickel reserves, and Chinese firms dominate the processing that turns ore into battery grade material. India's opening lies in entering that processing chain.
2 Jul 2026Update
- India and Japan agreed to cooperate on strategic stockpiling of critical minerals, covering national and industry stockpiles and emergency response.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: rare earth elements and the National Critical Mineral Mission
Lithium blocks abroad
Copy link to Lithium blocks abroadPrelims and Mains
The surest way to be certain of lithium is to hold the ground it lies in, which is why India is buying into blocks in other countries. KABIL is the vehicle that does the buying.
- KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd), a joint venture of National Aluminium Company, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy, acquires mineral assets abroad.
- India said it was in talks to acquire lithium blocks in Australia and Chile, and was seeking five more in Argentina, where it already holds five.
- Argentina, Bolivia and Chile form the lithium triangle.
What changed
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: countries and resources, including Chile and lithium
Critical minerals from industrial waste
Copy link to Critical minerals from industrial wastePrelims and Mains
Waste that is already dug up, ground and stacked has had the expensive part of mining done to it. Recovering critical materials from it supplements primary mining and cuts the waste burden at the same time.
- Two indigenous pilot plants in Odisha, built by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) with National Aluminium Company support, were set to recover rare earths from industrial waste.
- The first of its kind plant at Bhubaneswar takes coal fly ash, yielding alumina, calcium silicate, quartz and a residue rich in rare earths including scandium.
- The second works on red mud, for ferro-titanium and iron alongside rare earths.
What changed
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2015: uses and composition of fly ash from coal power plants
See also: Urban mining
Also filed elsewhere
- Deep sea minerals · on Ocean, polar and earth science missions
Two kinds of deposit are worth going to the ocean floor for, and they form in entirely different places.
- India's deep sea mining programme · on Ocean, polar and earth science missions
The Ministry of Earth Sciences and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) have invited private industry into deep sea mining, at an outreach workshop held to secure the country's critical mineral supply.
- Urban mining · on E-waste, battery and hazardous waste
A discarded computer holds metals and critical minerals in concentrations a miner would be pleased with, and they have already been dug out of the ground once.