Many industry stakeholders feel that India should work with friendly countries to achieve success in the critical mineral space, according to an ANI report.
At the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conference on “Building Resilient Rare Earth Metals (REM) Supply Chains through Localization of Technology” in Chennai on November 7, experts felt that India should “open the floor” in the development of rare earth materials.
‘A very big mountain to climb…come and connect’: What the experts say
“We cannot have any yardstick by which we can become a partner or a non-partner. Our idea is actually to open the floor. Whatever country comes and joins us, we are ready to take it forward,” said R Saravanabhavan, Deputy Adviser (Minerals), NITI Aayog at an event in Chennai.
Air Marshal M Matheswaran (Retd), former Deputy Chief of the Indian Integrated Defense Staff, said the country needed to develop capabilities “much more than what we have right now”.
Stressing the need to work with friendly countries, Matheswaran said: “Right now we’ve realized that we need to build much more capabilities than we have right now, right? But there’s a very big mountain to climb. Let’s focus on that first rather than becoming a leader in rare earths later. We’ll see that later.”
“In terms of partnership, yes, we have to work with friends. Japan, Australia, Singapore, Korea, the US, the UK. These are all countries with which we have industrial and trade relations. But no one is going to give you technology,” added Matheswaran.
Can Tamil Nadu take the lead?
Squadron Leader P Madhusoodhanan, vice-president of aerospace and defense at the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO) said the organization was “working to cater to the requirements of the aerospace and defense industry”.
“One of the things is that rare earths are available in abundance in Tamil Nadu. Monazite is available in the southern parts of the state, and if you look at the maximum abundance of rare earth elements, they are in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It’s a matter of processing them. There’s a limited amount of processing going on. It doesn’t really match the resources,” he said.
He added that while mining is already underway, “refining is currently non-existent. Once refining and recycling is in place, it will become an end-to-end ecosystem in the state”.
What are rare earth minerals, why are they important?
Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements—15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium—that aren’t actually rare, but are difficult to extract and purify from the Earth’s crust.
They are key to modern technology due to their unique properties, such as high magnetic strength, luminescence and catalytic capabilities, and are found in a wide range of applications, including smartphones, electric vehicles, medical equipment and lasers.
