Amid growing aspirations of becoming self-reliant in critical minerals, India continues to struggle with a significant shortfall in industrial skills and expertise required to extract and process these resources. What is more concerning is that most of the critical minerals available in the country are exported, only to be re-imported later in the form of finished industrial products at much higher prices.

 

“While India began discussions on critical minerals just a decade ago, other nations had already started investing in this sector more than 40 years back. The country still lacks the industrial expertise to extract and process most of these resources, especially rare earth (RE) elements, which are vital for the EV industry. Absence of indigenous processing technology remains a major setback, as nearly 90% of the global technology is controlled by China,” said Asit Saha, Director General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), during his recent visit to Jabalpur for the National Conference on Critical Minerals. Saha further pointed out that rare earth magnets, crucial components for electric vehicle batteries, remain India’s toughest challenge.

 

“Producing magnets requires tremendous effort, large-scale funding, strong intent and consistent policy backing to become a robust industry,” he noted. To address this gap, the Ministry of Mines has launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), under which seven institutions including, four IITs, are being developed as centres of excellence for extraction and processing technologies.