An exploration of India’s minerals diplomacy, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• India is actively pursuing bilateral and multilateral partnerships to secure access to critical minerals and rare earths for its clean energy transition.
• Partnerships with Australia and Japan are more advanced, focusing on long-term supply, joint research, and targeted investments in lithium and cobalt.
• African nations offer opportunities due to mineral abundance, with recent agreements signed with Namibia for lithium, rare earths, and uranium.
• Latin America is emerging as a new frontier, with investments in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil for copper, nickel, and rare earths.

Detailed Insights:

• India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership identified five target projects for potential investment in lithium and cobalt in 2022.
• Japan provides a model for resilience through diversification, stockpiling, recycling, and sustained R&D in response to China's export restrictions.
• Cooperation with Japan has expanded into joint extraction processing and stockpiling minerals, both bilaterally and in third countries.
• India aims to approach Africa with a long-term industrial mindset to avoid losing ground to competitors in mineral acquisition.
• Cooperation with the United States on critical minerals has been slow due to trade policy volatility and restrictive incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act.
• The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act and European Battery Alliance emphasize the importance of aligning with transparency, lifecycle standards, and environmental norms.
• West Asia could become an important midstream partner for India, processing minerals sourced from other regions.
• Russia could serve as a hedge for mineral supply diversification, but faces challenges due to sanctions, financing, and logistical unpredictability.
• Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) has signed a ₹200 crore exploration and development agreement with Argentina.
• Canada, with its reserves of nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earths, has the potential to become a strong minerals partner for India.
• Securing ore is insufficient; India needs to develop domestic refining and midstream capabilities to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities.
• India needs to strengthen its domestic framework for responsible mining, addressing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and transparency.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Critical Minerals: Minerals essential for modern technologies and economies, with supply chain vulnerabilities.
• Rare Earths: A set of seventeen metallic elements crucial for various industries, including electronics and renewable energy.
• ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance): A set of standards for a company’s behavior used by socially conscious investors.