The Missing Link in India’s Critical Mineral Mission: Why Mining Is Not Enough in 2025-26

India is finally waking up to critical minerals. The Union Cabinet has approved a ₹7,280 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for rare-earth magnets, 29 critical minerals have been delisted from the atomic minerals list, and the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) with ₹20,000+ crore funding is in full swing.

Yet, there is one glaring missing link that can make or break India’s entire mineral dream: Domestic Processing & Refining Capacity.

Mining lithium in Jammu & Kashmir or cobalt in Odisha means little if we ship the ore to China for refining and buy back the finished magnet at 10× the price, we have simply created jobs and wealth for someone else.

The Harsh Reality: India Mines, China Refines

• India is now mining/aucting 7 out of 30 critical minerals (lithium, niobium, titanium, beryllium, tantalum, zirconium, and REEs).
• But we still import >95% of processed lithium, cobalt, nickel, high-purity graphite, and rare-earth oxides.
• China controls:
  • 90–95% of global rare-earth refining
  • 85%+ of refined cobalt
  • 70%+ of lithium hydroxide & graphite anode material

Result? Even after discovering 1.6 million tonnes of lithium in Jammu, Indian EV and battery makers will remain dependent on Chinese refined LCE (lithium carbonate equivalent) unless processing plants come up fast.

Why Processing Is the Real Strategic Lever

Mastering the middle two stages is what turns a resource-rich nation into an industrial superpower.

Five Urgent Steps to Fix India’s Processing Gap

1. Turn Research into Revenue: Applied R&D, Not Just Papers

• The nine Centres of Excellence under NCMM must deliver pilot-scale refining plants, not just PhDs.
• Mandate 36–48 month “lab-to-pilot-to-commercial” timelines with industry partners (Tata, Reliance, Ola Electric, etc.).
• Create an Indian version of Australia’s CSIRO model — government-funded applied research with mandatory industry offtake.

2. Mine the Waste: Unlock Secondary Resources

India throws away treasure every year:

• 250–300 million tonnes of coal fly ash containing gallium, germanium, and rare earths
• Red mud from alumina plants (rich in scandium & REEs)
• Phosphogypsum and copper slag

Pilot projects by NITI Aayog and IIT Bombay have already extracted 99.9% purity REEs from fly ash. Scale this inside the upcoming Critical Mineral Processing Parks with 100% depreciation and viability gap funding.

3. Build a World-Class Mineral Processing Workforce

Current Indian metallurgy courses focus on iron & steel, not hydrometallurgy or solvent extraction. Solution:

• Launch dedicated M.Tech/B.Tech programs in “Critical Mineral Refining”
• Send 500 apprentices every year to Lynas (Malaysia), MP Materials (USA), and Iluka (Australia) refineries
• Create 50,000 direct jobs in Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra, and Gujarat — the new mineral states

4. De-Risk Private Investment

Refining plants cost ₹2,000–10,000 crore and take 4–7 years to break even. Government must provide:

• 10–15 year offtake contracts at pre-agreed prices (like the rare-earth magnet PLI)
• First-loss default guarantees and low-cost ECB windows
• Single-window clearance within 90 days

5. Aggressive Mineral Diplomacy Focused on Processing

Forget just buying mines abroad. India should:

• Acquire equity in existing refineries (like the proposed India–Australia–Japan rare-earth alliance plant)
• Offer duty-free access to Indian market in return for setting up refining JV in India
• Insert critical mineral processing clauses in every FTA (starting with UK, EU, and Gulf nations)

The Bottom Line: Processing = True Atmanirbharta

Discovering minerals = National pride Refining minerals = National power Manufacturing magnets, cathodes, and anodes = National wealth

Unless India builds 10–15 large-scale refining plants by 2030, we will remain a raw-material colony in the green economy, exactly what we were in the colonial era for coal and iron ore.

The ₹7,280 crore rare-earth magnet scheme is a good beginning, but it’s only the first brick. The real mission is to make India the refining hub of the Indo-Pacific by 2035.

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