Critical minerals: the list, the law and the chain

Prelims and MainsCurrent affairs on this: Critical minerals and rare earths

India named 30 minerals critical in 2023, on a Ministry of Mines committee's test of how much the economy needs each and how easily its supply can be cut, and rewrote the mining law around them the same year. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 put 24 critical and strategic minerals in a new part of the Act's first schedule, gave the Centre the power to auction them, created an exploration licence for private firms to look for deep seated minerals, and took six minerals, lithium among them, off the atomic list. Abroad, KABIL buys into blocks, and India joined the Minerals Security Partnership in 2023. The National Critical Mineral Mission of 2025 gathers exploration, processing, recovery from waste, assets abroad and a stockpile under one programme. The exam asks which mineral does what, and where the supply is concentrated, which for most is China's refineries.

• The list: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, the rare earths, copper, gallium, germanium, indium, tellurium, silicon, tantalum, niobium, beryllium, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum, antimony, bismuth, cadmium, selenium, tin, platinum group elements, phosphorus, potash, strontium, zirconium, hafnium and rhenium, chosen for batteries, magnets, chips, solar cells, defence and fertiliser.
• The 2023 amendments: 24 of the 30 in Part D of the First Schedule of the mining Act, auctioned by the Centre in tranches, on their own subject; an exploration licence for 29 deep seated minerals so that a finder is paid from the auction; lithium, beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium removed from the atomic minerals list, thorium and uranium staying on it; and offshore mineral blocks opened to auction by the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023. The Geological Survey of India's 2023 inference of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore at Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir is the find a question names, and it is an inferred resource, the lowest grade of certainty.
• Abroad: Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), the 2019 joint venture of three public companies, holds lithium blocks in Argentina, on its own subject; the Minerals Security Partnership, led by the United States with fourteen members and the European Union, and the Quad's critical minerals initiative of 2025 are the alliances; Japan is the stockpiling partner. India's rare earth position rests on monazite in beach sands, handled by IREL, on its own subject.
• The mission: approved in January 2025 with ₹34,300 crore over seven years, ₹16,300 crore from the government and the rest from public companies, covering exploration at home and offshore, processing parks, recycling incentives, assets abroad, a stockpile and research; the Budget of 2024 removed customs duty on 25 critical minerals. The mission subject tracks its progress.
• Why the refinery is the chokepoint: China mines about 60 per cent of rare earths and refines about 90, refines most of the world's lithium, cobalt and graphite, and makes most rare earth magnets, so a mine in India or Argentina still sends its ore to China to be made useful; midstream processing, and the magnet scheme on its own subject, are the mission's hardest part.

Mains: Resource security is now a refining question rather than a reserves question: India can buy ore abroad and dig it at home, but until it separates and refines at scale it will still send its lithium and rare earths to the one country whose export controls it fears.

See also: Critical minerals · National Critical Mineral Mission · Critical mineral block auctions · Lithium blocks abroad · Monazite and the beach sands · Sintered rare earth permanent magnets · Critical minerals from industrial waste · Deep sea minerals · How a battery works, and the chemistries in play · A chip from sand to package: nodes, fabs and the India Semiconductor Mission