Context:

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the launch of the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) to promote the exploration of critical minerals within the country and at offshore locations.

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• The mission was approved with an expenditure of Rs 16,300 crore and an expected investment of 18000 Cr from Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) leading to a total outlay of 34,300 Crore over seven years.
• Earlier, the Finance Minister had announced the setting up of the Critical Mineral Mission in the Union Budget for 2024-25 in July 2024. 

National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM/CMM)

• The mission will encompass all stages of the value chain, including mineral exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, and recovery from end-of-life products.
• It aims to create a fast-track regulatory approval process for critical mineral mining projects, leading to intensification of exploration of critical minerals within the country and in its offshore areas. 
• Additionally, the mission will offer financial incentives for critical mineral exploration and promote the recovery of these minerals from overburden and tailings. 

Objectives:

• To secure India’s critical mineral supply chain by ensuring mineral availability from domestic and foreign sources. 
• setting up of mineral processing parks and supporting the recycling of critical minerals
• promote research in critical mineral technologies 
• setting up Centre of Excellence on Critical Minerals

Administrative Framework:

• The Ministry of Mines will be the administrative Ministry.
• The mission’s activities will be coordinated by an Empowered Committee, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary and including members from relevant stakeholder ministries.

What are Critical Minerals? 

Critical minerals are those minerals which are essential for economic development and national security.

The “Criticality” combines a comparatively high economic importance with a comparatively high risk of supply disruption.

The Ministry of Mines has released a list of 30 critical minerals for India in 2023.

These minerals are – Antimony, Beryllium, Bismuth, Cobalt, Copper, Gallium, Germanium, Graphite, Hafnium, Indium, Lithium, Molybdenum, Niobium, Nickel, platinum group elements (PGE), Phosphorous, Potash, rare earth elements (REE), Rhenium, Silicon, Strontium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Vanadium, Zirconium, Selenium and Cadmium. 

• The platinum group elements (PGE) consist of platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), osmium (Os) and iridium (Ir).
• The rare earth elements (REE) consist of 17 silvery-white soft heavy metals Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Promethium (Pm), Samarium (Sm), Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb), Lutetium (Lu), Scandium (Sc), and Yttrium (Y).

These critical minerals play a pivotal role in the manufacturing of cutting-edge technologies, including mobile phones, tablets, electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, fiber optic cables, as well as applications in the defence and medical sectors. 

While critical minerals are found in large extents across the globe, extracting and refining them is costly, technically difficult and energy intensive. 

China dominates the entire value chain in terms of processing these critical minerals. 

India heavily relies on China for the import of Critical minerals.

Recent Government Initiatives to Explore and Extract Critical Minerals.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023, amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, to strengthen the exploration and extraction of critical minerals essential for India's economic development and national security. 

• Consequently, the Ministry of Mines has auctioned 24 blocks of strategic minerals. 

India became the 14^th member of the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) in June 2023.

• MSP is a global initiative by the US that seeks to bolster critical minerals supply chains to support economic prosperity and climate objectives. 

The Ministry of Mines launched the Science and Technology - Promotion of Research and Innovation in Start-ups and MSMEs (S&T PRISM) program in 2023 for providing funding to bridge the gap between research and commercialization.