Mines ministry working on rolling out Critical Mineral Mission this year: Official

New Delhi: The Mines Ministry is working on rolling out the Critical Mineral Mission this year, Mines Secretary V L Kantha Rao said on Wednesday.

Union Budget 2024-25 has proposed launching Critical Mineral Mission for domestic production, recycling of critical minerals, and overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets.

Its mandate will include technology development, skilled workforce, extended producer responsibility framework, and a suitable financing mechanism.

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"It was announced that the government will set up Critical Mineral Mission for focused activities relating to critical minerals whether it is exploration, mining, research and development, foreign acquisition or any financial support or recycling.

"All these aspects would be covered in this Critical Mineral Mission and Ministry of Mines is working on this announcement and we will look forward to the mission being approved at the government level and the mission being rolled out this year," Rao said at the felicitation ceremony of five-star rated mines.

Critical minerals, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths, play a crucial role in the production of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines to electric cars.

Such minerals are particularly in demand for production of batteries for electric cars. The government, he said, has successfully auctioned 14 critical mineral mines.

"So the mining practises in the critical mineral mines will have to be studied because this is the first time that these kinds of mines will become operational in the country. We will have to study how these mines are operationalised in other countries and what are the specific practises relating to critical mineral mines and we may have to incorporate some of those into the star rating system," he explained.

During the Union Budget, it was announced that the government will do the first auction of offshore mineral blocks this year, he said and added that "we are working on that as well."

Minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements are critical for sectors like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space, defence, telecommunications, and high-tech electronics.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech proposed to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce BCD (basic customs duty) on two of them.

This will provide a major fillip to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for these strategic and important sectors.

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