Critical minerals are those minerals that are essential for economic development and national security. The lack of availability of these minerals or concentration of extraction or processing in a few geographical locations may lead to supply chain vulnerabilities and even disruption of supplies. The future global economy will be underpinned by technologies that depend on minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, titanium, and rare earth elements. These are essential for the advancement of many sectors, including high-tech electronics, telecommunications, transport, and defence. They are also vital to power the global transition to a low carbon emissions economy, and the renewable energy technologies that will be required to meet the ‘Net Zero’ commitments of an increasing number of countries around the world. Hence, it has become imperative to identify and develop value chains for the minerals which are critical to India.
The Ministry of Mines constituted a seven-member committee to identify the list of minerals critical to India. The committee had a series of deliberations amongst the members and released the report in June 2023.
The report can be accessed here
