India explores important mineral blocks in Africa and Latin America

Mines ministry joint secretary Veena Kumari Dermal on Tuesday said India is in talks with Africa as well as Latin America to acquire critical mineral blocks on a government-to-government basis.

Critical minerals like lithium are essential components in many of today’s fast-growing clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, power networks and electric vehicles.

With the acceleration of clean energy transition, the demand for these minerals is increasing rapidly.

“We are in a lot of discussions with many other resource-rich countries in Africa as well as Latin America to acquire blocks on a G2G basis or on a priority basis,” Dermal said at the India Energy Storage Week (IESW). ) 2024 was organized by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

He said that the Ministry of Mines is giving more and more importance to the exploration of important minerals in India.

The Joint Secretary said that on the domestic front, the government has successfully auctioned a lithium block in Chhattisgarh.

He expressed hope that the Chhattisgarh government will take steps to start exploration and production from the lithium block at the earliest. Mackie South Mining Pvt Ltd had last month acquired the country’s first lithium block in Chhattisgarh which was put up for sale.

Meanwhile, the government canceled the auction of 14 critical minerals proposed in the second round of auction.

In June, the government had put 21 blocks up for sale in the fourth round of critical and strategic minerals auction.

The government received 56 physical bids and 56 online bids for 18 of the 20 blocks offered during the first tranche of the auction that began on November 29, 2023.

However, the auction of 13 out of 20 blocks was canceled due to weak response.

Seven of these canceled blocks were re-notified for auction in the third round.