India scouting for critical mineral assets in Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, Australia: Mines Secretary

New Delhi: The government on Thursday said that the country is scouting for mining and exploration of critical mineral assets in Congo, Zambia, Tanzania and Australia.

Speaking at a press conference here, mines secretary V L Kantha Rao said: "The Australian government is working with KABIL....There are also other countries like Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and few other countries where through our missions...(we) are working on trying to get critical mineral assets for exploration and mining for Indian companies in those countries."

Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth are important raw materials needed to fuel the growth of rapidly-growing clean energy technologies and their expanding uses ranging from wind turbines and electricity networks to electric vehicles and battery manufacturing.

The secretary further said that along with KABIL, public sector units like Coal India, NMDC and ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, are also exploring critical mineral blocks in Australia.

The Zambian government, he said, has recently agreed to give India a greenfield area of 9,000 square kilometers for carrying out exploration of cobalt and copper.

"We will take two to three years in doing this exploration and we hope that after exploration we will be able to get the mining rights also," Rao said.

Stating that lithium blocks are a lot in demand, mines minister G Kishan Reddy said that the Geological Survey of India has identified few lithium blocks in Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.

It has been decided to set up a special team by GSI for carrying out more exploration of lithium blocks in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The clarity on this exploration will come by the end of April and May and after that we would go on auction," the minister explained.

Reddy further said that the mines ministry will next month launch the auction of exploration license blocks.

The government had last month approved a Rs 16,300-crore National Critical Mineral Mission, envisaging a total outlay of Rs 34,300 crore spread over seven years, with an aim to achieve self-reliance and accelerate India's journey towards green energy transition.

Public sector enterprises are expected to contribute Rs 18,000 crore to the mission which aims at promoting exploration of critical minerals within the country and at offshore locations.

Demand for these minerals is growing with clean energy transitions gathering momentum worldwide. The mission aims to reduce the dependence on import of critical minerals and ensure self-reliance.

The major objectives of this mission are to increase exploration, reduce import dependence, acquire mineral blocks overseas, develop technologies for processing of critical minerals and recycle the minerals.