Critical minerals are the crucial elements in the creation of various modern-day technologies. They form the backbone of essential devices and systems like mobile phones, computers, batteries, and green technologies including solar panels and wind turbines. The demand for these minerals is escalating, especially with the world’s move towards clean energy and digital economies.
Major critical minerals like Graphite, Lithium, and Cobalt play a significant role in crafting Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries. Meanwhile, industries such as aerospace, communication, and defense greatly depend on several such minerals for manufacturing different equipment including fighter jets, drones, and radio sets.
The Emerging Demand for Critical Minerals
As the global shift towards clean energy and digital economies accelerates, these critical resources become more significant. Any disruption in their supply chain can severely impact a country’s economy and strategic autonomy, specifically if the nation is heavily reliant on others to procure these minerals.
At this point, the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), an initiative by the United States, comes into play. This partnership includes countries like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and more. The main aim of MSP is to secure the supply chains of minerals like Cobalt, Nickel, Lithium, and the 17 “rare earth” minerals. By doing so, it ensures that these minerals are produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports each country’s economic development potential.
Economic Implications of Exclusion from MSP for India
India’s exclusion from the Minerals Security Partnership brings about certain concerns. The country’s growth strategy heavily relies on a major shift towards electric mobility for public and private transport. Additionally, there’s a keen emphasis on electronics manufacturing. These underline the need to secure the supply of critical minerals.
The supply of rare earth elements, broken down into light RE elements (LREE) and heavy RE elements (HREE), varies in India. While some such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, and Samarium are available, others like Dysprosium, Terbium, Europium that are classified as HREE do not exist in extractable quantities. Therefore, India requires supply support for these elements from other countries.
Another concern is the technology level. Some industry experts suggest that one of the reasons behind India’s exclusion from the grouping might be the lack of expertise it brings to the table. Countries like Australia and Canada have both the reserves and the technology to extract them while Japan possesses the technology to process them.
India’s Efforts Towards Securing Critical Minerals
Despite the challenges, India has taken respectable strides towards securing critical minerals. In mid-2020, a state-owned company of India signed an agreement with an Argentine firm to jointly prospect lithium in Argentina, a country that has the third-largest lithium reserves worldwide.
Moreover, India and Australia decided to enhance their partnership in the field of projects and supply chains for critical minerals. Australia can provide the resources to help India lower emissions and meet the growing demand for critical minerals, which could boost India’s space and defence industries, and facilitate the manufacture of solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles.
Conclusively, securing critical minerals is of paramount importance for countries like India, given its ambitious plans for a clean energy future. Despite its exclusion from the Minerals Security Partnership, the nation is taking significant steps to ensure its steady supply of these crucial elements through different collaborations and partnerships.
