Boost for smartphone and electric car industries: India-Russia partnership to break China's monopoly in rare earth minerals

NEW DELHI: India and Russia are working together to mine and extract rare earth minerals, which are essential for electric cars, smartphones and sophisticated missiles. China, which dominates these minerals, imposed restrictions on their export in the context of a tariff war with the United States, which was a setback for India. The situation of having to depend on China will be avoided with the recent discovery of these deposits in India and the development of the technology to extract such minerals by Russia. The technology developed by Russian companies is in the testing phase. Russia has expressed interest in commercialising it in collaboration with India. India will also have access to rare earth minerals available in Russia. It will also pave the way for reducing China's dominance in the world economy. China controls 90 percent of the world's rare earth minerals processing.

The central government has asked Indian companies Lohum and Midwest to explore the possibilities of collaborating with Russian companies. Russian public sector companies Nornickel and Rosatom are ready for collaboration. The government has asked CSIR, Indian School of Mines and Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology to explore Russian technology. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government has taken steps to increase the availability of rare earth minerals. He also said that discussions are underway with countries like Chile and Peru for copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Mineral deposits in India also; scheme of Rs 7,300 crore

👉India has launched a Rs 7,300 crore project to mine and extract rare earth minerals.

👉5.9 million tonnes of lithium deposits have been discovered in Jammu and Kashmir. Although not as much, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra, Odisha and Gujarat also have rare earth minerals.

👉Cobalt deposits are also found in Orissa, Rajasthan, Nagaland and Jharkhand. Cerium and Neodymium have been discovered in the Andaman.

👉Kerala's black sand contains cerium and lanthanum. The problem is that there is no technology to extract these on an industrial scale.

👉It will take at least two years to produce rare earth minerals in India. Till then, we will have to rely on imports from other countries.

Rare earth minerals imported by India in 2023-24: 2270 tonnes

China accounted for 65% of imports in 2023-24

Kerala will also have a big breakthrough in this field if cerium and lanthanum present in monazite in black sand can be extracted.

-Dr. D. Padmalal,

Former Head of Hydrology Department,

National Centre for Earth Science Studies