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Dr Jitendra Singh told the 3rd Global Summit on Advanced Materials, Critical Minerals & Metals that critical minerals underpin India's energy security, industrial competitiveness and national security.
He called for capability across the whole value chain — exploration, extraction, refining, processing, engineering and manufacturing — combining domestic resources with international partnerships.
He cited the opening of the nuclear sector to private players and invited foreign investors, including from Canada, into the new framework.
Five priorities were set out: research investment, domestic capability for energy security, deeper partnerships, global and recycling models, and philanthropy for research.
The summit, on the theme 'Building Resilient Value Chains for a Sustainable and Competitive Future', was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
Rare earths are 17 metals — scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides. They are not geologically scarce, but rarely occur in minable concentrations and are chemically alike, so separation is costly. Processing capacity, not ore, is the bottleneck.
Simple Analogy: Like separating identical twins from a crowd of seventeen.
Build a resilient value chain for critical minerals and cut import dependence
Key: Approved 29 January 2025; ₹16,300 crore government expenditure plus about ₹18,000 crore from PSUs, ₹34,300 crore over seven years (2024-25 to 2030-31); Ministry of Mines is nodal; covers exploration to recycling
Acquire and develop critical mineral assets abroad
Key: Incorporated 8 August 2019 under the Ministry of Mines; a joint venture of NALCO, Hindustan Copper Limited and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited in 40:30:30; holds exploration rights to five lithium brine blocks in Catamarca, Argentina, under a January 2024 agreement with the state enterprise CAMYEN
Open India's maritime zones to mineral development
Key: First tranche launched 28 November 2024 — 13 blocks in the Arabian Sea and Andaman Sea, covering construction sand, lime-mud and polymetallic nodules and crusts
Took six minerals — lithium, beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium — out of the list of 12 atomic minerals reserved for State agencies, and created the exploration licence allowing private reconnaissance and prospecting for 29 critical and deep-seated minerals.
Governs mineral development in India's maritime zones. Its 2023 amendment made auction the method of granting operating rights, cut block sizes, and reserved atomic minerals — including monazite and rare earth minerals bearing uranium or thorium — for government companies.
The parent mineral law. Twenty-four of the thirty critical minerals sit in Part D of its Schedule I, the schedule that decides how a mineral's concessions are granted.
National agency for geoscientific survey and mineral exploration; generates the baseline data from which auctionable blocks are carved
India's largest chain of publicly funded research laboratories, working on materials, extraction and processing technologies
Produces high-purity rare earth oxides from monazite, with a Rare Earths Plant at Aluva, Kerala
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology, and Infrastructure > Mineral and Energy Resources
General Awareness > Science and Government Missions
Consider the following statements: Statement I: Some rare earth elements are used in the manufacture of flat television screens... Statement II: Some rare earth elements have phosphorescent properties. Which one of the following is correct...?
Answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct but Statement II does not explain Statement I
Consider the following statements: I. India has joined the Minerals Security Partnership as a member. II. India is a resource-rich country in all the 30 critical minerals that it has identified. III. The Parliament in 2023 has amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowering the Central Government to exclusively auction mining lease... for certain critical minerals. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer: I and III only
A mineral whose supply is at risk but which is essential to strategic sectors; India's first list of 30 was released by the Ministry of Mines in June 2023.
A concession created by the MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 permitting private reconnaissance and prospecting for 29 critical and deep-seated minerals.
A group of 17 metals — scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides — recovered in India mainly from monazite.