Developing processing value chain for critical minerals remains key challenges: Mines Ministry official

New Delhi [India] November 13 (ANI): Mohammad Sadiq, Director (G) at the Ministry of Mines, on Thursday, emphasised that developing a robust processing value chain for critical minerals remains one of the country's key challenges.

He noted that nine Centres of Excellence (CoEs) have been identified to support the industry in advancing indigenous technologies.

Sadiq added that the Ministry is actively supporting projects proposed by both industry and research institutions to move toward self-sufficiency in critical minerals, stating that while the journey is complex, progress is being made at a steady pace.

"The major challenge is how we can develop the processing value chain of critical memories. And for that, as I said, we have already identified nine recognised nine COEs. So they would be helping the industry to develop the indigenous technologies."

"And we would be supporting the projects submitted by the industry as well as the institutes. What are the ways we can become, we can attain the self-sufficiency in the real-life minerals? It's difficult to comment, but we are working at a good pace. So let us see," he added.

In October this year, Ministry of Mines recognised two more institutes, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Hyderabad, besides 7 institutes recognised earlier, as Centres of Excellence (CoE) under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM).

Critical raw materials form the crucial supply chain for emerging sectors of clean energy and mobility transition, in addition to advanced technology and strategic sectors like electronics, defence, space, etc. In order to develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies in an end-to-end systems approach, it is essential to conduct R&D so as to reach higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), of TRL 7 / 8 pilot plant and pre-commercial demonstration. The CoEs will undertake innovative and transformational research to strengthen and advance the nation's science and technology capability in the area of critical minerals.

Each CoE will operate as a consortium, on a Hub & Spoke model, to leverage R&D in critical minerals and pooling the core competence of each constituent under one umbrella.

The CoE (Hub Institute) is mandated as per the CoE guidelines to bring in at least two industry partners and at least two R&D/ academic partners in the consortium. The 9 recognized CoEs have together brought in around 90 industry and academic/ R&D spokes.

The government has also launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), introduced in 2025, which serves as India's blueprint for securing its domestic and global supply chains of critical minerals.

Under the NCMM, a Rs 1,500 crore incentive scheme has been approved to boost recycling capacity for critical minerals. (ANI)

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