Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements: Driving India's Transition to a Resilient and Self-reliant Economy
The report situates critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs) at the heart of a rapidly transforming global economy shaped by decarbonisation, technological advancement, and strategic re-industrialisation. It highlights how minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper, and REEs are indispensable to clean energy systems, electric mobility, digital infrastructure, and defence technologies. While global demand for these minerals is expected to grow two to three times by 2030, supply chains remain highly concentrated - particularly in refining and processing, which are dominated by a few geographies. This structural imbalance, coupled with rising geopolitical tensions, export controls, and environmental constraints, creates significant vulnerabilities and underscores the urgency for supply diversification, recycling, and resilient trade partnerships.
Against this global backdrop, the report analyses India’s position as both vulnerable and strategically poised. India’s ambitious targets - 500 GW renewable capacity, 30% EV penetration by 2030, and net-zero emissions by 2070 - are expected to drive exponential growth in demand for critical minerals. However, the country currently relies heavily on imports, with near-total dependency for several key minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Despite possessing notable geological potential, India faces constraints in exploration depth, mining feasibility, and especially midstream processing capabilities, leading to value leakage and supply insecurity. The report emphasises that the real bottleneck lies not in resource availability but in the absence of large-scale refining, separation, and advanced material processing infrastructure.
To address these challenges, the report outlines a comprehensive, system-wide strategy anchored in recent policy reforms such as the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) and amendments to mining laws. It takes a holistic look at the demand scenarios of various critical and strategic minerals and conducts a study of the supply scenarios of each of the minerals under focus. To ascertain India’s mineral security, the report advocates a coordinated approach spanning accelerated exploration, domestic processing hubs, recycling ecosystems, overseas asset acquisition, and global partnerships. Emphasis is also placed on developing technological capabilities, attracting private investment, strengthening ESG frameworks, and building skilled human capital.
Key Takeaways
- Establish a National Critical Minerals Board (NCMB)to enable coordinated decision-making across ministries,PSUs, state governments, industry and academia, similar to Australia’s Critical Minerals Facilitation Office.
- Create a single-window policy coordination mechanism to streamline approvals, align incentive
- Scale up advanced exploration technologies, including AI-driven mineral targeting, hyperspectral imaging, drone-based surveys and deep-seated reserves
- Support midstream investments through targeted incentives, including Production Linked Incentives (PLIs), Viability Gap Funding (VGF), capital subsidies and long-term offtake assurances
- Expand government-to-government (G2G) and commercial collaborations with resource-rich countries such as Australia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and African jurisdictions
- Secure long-term supply agreements for raw materials, processing technologies and downstream chemicals
- Create specialised training and research centres under NCMM focused on geosciences, mineral processing, metallurgy and chemical engineering