New Delhi: The government has already auctioned 24 critical mineral blocks domestically and plans to auction as many critical mineral blocks as possible by 2031,” Union Minister of State for Mines and Coal Satish Chandra Dubey said here today at a FICCI event.
Speaking at a FICCI conference, Critical Minerals Matrix, the Minister outlined the government’s strategic approach to reducing import dependency for critical minerals.
Dubey emphasized the role of public-private partnerships in achieving these objectives.
“We must work as complementary partners and as a team to build a self-reliant India,” the Minister stated, while calling for increased private sector involvement in mineral exploration and extraction activities.
The Minister also launched a new FICCI-Deloitte report, “Recovery of Critical Minerals from Mine Tailings and Overburden,” at the conference.
The report has outlined four key strategic areas for development: policies and incentives, extraction processing technologies, supply chain integration, and capacity building. It recommends establishing Critical Mineral Recovery Zones with public-private partnerships, creating a nationwide assessment database for mine tailings, and developing dedicated regulatory frameworks for mineral extraction.
The report has emphasized the importance of international collaboration and suggested India could learn from successful models implemented in Australia, the United States, Japan, and Canada, where specific funds and collaborative development programmes support critical mineral recovery from tailings.
Rajib Maitra, Partner at Deloitte, highlighted that lithium demand alone is expected to increase nine to ten-fold over the next decade.
The report has identified significant opportunities in recovering critical minerals from mine tailings and overburden.
