The Parliament was informed on Monday that the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has increased the number of its critical and strategic mineral exploration projects from 118 in 2021–2022 to 196 in 2024–2025 due to the importance of these minerals for vital industries like computing, semiconductor technology, and lithium-ion batteries.
According to Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy, India has mining and production of several important metals, but it remains mostly depends on imports to meet demand, as he told the Rajya Sabha.
He went on to say that the nation has 54 mining leases for vital minerals such tin ore, rock phosphate, and graphite.
The minister stated that the significance and financial viability of these deposits vary, and that they are dispersed around the nation with differing accessibility and extraction feasibility levels.
Lithium reserves have been found in Karnataka and Jammu & Kashmir, India. Small quantities of cobalt and nickel are known to occur in Odisha and Jharkhand. These elements are typically discovered in conjunction with copper ores. According to him, India’s reserves are not that large.
Significant rare earth element reserves can also be found in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, and Kerala. Kerala’s monazite sands are very abundant in rare earth elements. In addition, the minister mentioned that the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu contain significant quantities of high-quality graphite.
In addition, he stated that by 2030, the nation is expected to need 3,878 tonnes of cobalt, 13, 671 tonnes of lithium, 17,492 tonnes of nickel, and 766 tonnes of neodymium annually.
The minister noted that the GSI has provided push to increase the number of exploration projects across the nation and is participating in the exploration of key minerals and/or metals, with a focus on locations that have the potential to contain critical and strategic minerals.
