India's Critical Minerals
Notes on India's minerals: production shares, gaps, the aluminium chain, rare-earth law, the ₹34,300 crore mission and the magnet scheme arithmetic.
These notes apply the framework from Part 1, how mineral supply chains work, to India. They cover India's production and reserve position, the aluminium chain, the legal regime for rare earths, the 2025 policy programmes, and recycling. Production and reserve figures are 2025 estimates from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 unless stated otherwise. Indian government sources are cited where they add to or differ from USGS. References are listed at the end.
1. Production
Commodities where India holds 4% or more of world output. Shares computed against the sum of countries USGS published. Source: USGS 2026.
India's output falls into three groups:
- Industrial minerals, used in cement, ceramics, glass, paint, drilling mud and refractories. India ranks first in the world in four: iron oxide pigments, barite (used mainly as a weighting agent in oil and gas drilling mud), talc and pyrophyllite, and feldspar.
- Bulk metals and their ores: iron ore, steel, zinc, lead, bauxite, alumina and aluminium, chromium and manganese.
- Minor and technology metals used in batteries, magnets, electronics and aerospace. India's output here is small or zero.
1.1 Missing Minerals
India does not appear in the USGS world production tables for:
antimony, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, indium, lithium, magnesium metal, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, other platinum-group metals, potash, rhenium, tantalum, tin, tungsten, vanadium and zirconium.
Where India does appear, several shares are small:
| Commodity | India's share of world output, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Copper (mine) | 0.1% |
| Titanium sponge | 0.1% |
| Phosphate rock | 0.6% |
| Rare earths | 0.7% |
| Graphite (natural) | 1.0% |
| Silicon | 1.2% |
Fertiliser minerals are a food-security dependency. India is one of the world's largest agricultural producers. It mines no potash and 0.6% of world phosphate rock. As Part 1 notes, phosphorus and potassium have no substitutes as plant nutrients.
Absence from a USGS table can also reflect very small production or a lack of reliable public statistics. For most of the minerals listed above, it reflects the absence of commercial output.
2. Reserves
2.1 Graphite
| Country | Reserves (million tonnes) |
|---|---|
| China | 100 |
| Brazil | 74 |
| Madagascar | 27 |
| Mozambique | 25 |
| Tanzania | 18 |
| Russia | 14 |
| Vietnam | 9.7 |
| India | 8.6 |
| World | 310 |
India holds about 2.8% of world graphite reserves (eighth largest) and produced 17,000 tonnes in 2025, about 1% of world output, against China's 1.4 million tonnes. Reserve share minus production share is about 1.8 percentage points. For comparison, the gap is 46.6 points for Australian vanadium and 21.1 for Brazilian graphite (Part 1, section 4.1).
2.2 Kyanite
India holds 9.1 million tonnes of kyanite reserves, against 5 million for China, and produced 2,500 tonnes in 2025, against 120,000 for South Africa. Kyanite is used in refractories, the heat-resistant linings of furnaces and kilns. USGS gives no figure for France, Peru or South Africa and records United States reserves only as "Large", so no world total or share can be calculated. India is the largest holder among countries with a published figure.
2.3 Rare Earths
USGS lists India's rare-earth reserves as "NA" (not available). The Ministry of Mines, answering a parliamentary question in July 2025, reported:
- about 7.23 million tonnes of in-situ rare-earth oxide (REO) contained in 13.15 million tonnes of monazite, in coastal and inland placer deposits across eight states; and
- about 1.29 million tonnes of in-situ REO in hard-rock deposits.
A resource is mineral known to exist. A reserve is the part of a resource that is proven and economic at current prices. The Ministry of Mines figures are resources, so they cannot be compared directly with USGS reserve figures such as China's 44 million tonnes.
The resource is large relative to output:
- in-situ REO in monazite (Ministry of Mines, 2025)
- India's rare-earth mine production in 2025 (USGS 2026)
India's rare-earth output has stayed at about 2,900 tonnes a year for several years. Ore availability is not the constraint. The constraints are legal and technical and are covered in section 4.
3. Aluminium and Gallium
3.1 The Aluminium Chain
Most bauxite producers export ore and add little value domestically. Guinea mines 35% of world bauxite and refines 0.2% of world alumina. Australia mines 22% of bauxite and smelts 2.2% of world aluminium. India and China are the only countries with roughly balanced shares at all three stages.
3.2 Unrecovered Gallium
Gallium is recovered from Bayer process liquor at alumina refineries (Part 1, section 5.4). India refines alumina at scale and recovers no gallium.
- India's bauxite production (USGS 2026)
- USGS average gallium content of bauxite
- contained gallium, against world recovered primary production of about 900 t
This is contained metal, not recoverable metal. Not all bauxite mined in India goes to domestic refineries, grades vary by deposit, and recovery circuits extract only part of the gallium in the liquor. Even so, the gallium contained in Indian bauxite each year is of the same order as total world gallium production. Recovering it would mean retrofitting existing refineries rather than developing a new mine. The National Critical Mineral Mission includes ₹100 crore to promote recovery of critical minerals from tailings, fly ash and red mud. Red mud is the residue in which unrecovered gallium ends up.
3.3 Beach Sands
India produces 2.6% of world titanium mineral concentrates and 2.1% of industrial garnet from coastal heavy-mineral sands in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The same sands contain monazite. Ilmenite, rutile and zircon (titanium and zirconium minerals) and monazite come from the same deposits but fall under different legal regimes (section 4).
4. Rare-Earth Law
4.1 Statutes
| Instrument | Relevant provision |
|---|---|
| Atomic Energy Act, 1962 | Thorium and uranium, and minerals containing them, are "prescribed substances", controlled by the central government through the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). |
| MMDR Act, 1957, First Schedule, Part B | Lists atomic minerals, including monazite and other rare-earth-bearing beach sand minerals. Concessions are reserved for government entities, and exploration is led by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD). |
| MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 | Removed six minerals from the atomic list (lithium, beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium bearing minerals), enabling private auctions. Rare earths and monazite were not removed. Created a Part D list of critical and strategic minerals auctioned by the central government. |
| MMDR Amendment Act, 2025 (passed August 2025) | Allowed additional minerals to be added to existing leases; restricted inclusion of atomic minerals above a threshold grade in leases granted for non-atomic minerals; removed the 50% sales cap on captive mines; renamed the National Mineral Exploration Trust as the National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust and raised contributions from 2% to 3% of royalty. |
| MoEFCC Office Memorandum, 8 September 2025 | Exempted mining projects for atomic, critical and strategic minerals from public hearings in environmental clearance. |
Monazite contains thorium. Monazite and its rare-earth content therefore sit within the atomic-energy regime rather than the ordinary mining regime. IREL (India) Limited, a public sector undertaking under the DAE, has been the sole processor of Indian monazite for about 75 years. The constraint on India's rare-earth output has been statutory, not geological.
Some secondary commentary describes a March 2025 change that ended IREL's exclusivity over rare-earth mining. The statutory texts listed above do not show rare earths leaving Part B. The Ministry of Mines' July 2025 reply to Parliament listed only the six minerals removed in 2023. The primary sources support a narrower reading. Private participation has expanded in exploration: the Ministry has notified 33 private exploration agencies that take up projects funded through the national exploration trust. Monazite processing and thorium handling remain within the government system.
Some states have built arrangements within this framework. Andhra Pradesh has adopted a model in which the state minerals corporation holds leases and supplies feedstock while private firms carry out downstream refining (IMPRI 2025).
4.2 Thorium Residue
Processing monazite produces thorium-bearing residue that has to be stored long term. This is a physical waste-management problem that statutory reform alone does not resolve. Any expansion of monazite processing needs a matching thorium storage and disposal plan.
Mining permission and processing permission are separate questions. For rare earths, the binding step is separating a mixed concentrate into individual oxides (Part 1, section 2.4). In India that step sits inside the atomic-energy framework. A new rare-earth mining lease does not by itself create separation capacity.
5. Policy Programmes
5.1 Critical Mineral Mission
Approved by the Union Cabinet on 29 January 2025, for 2024-25 to 2030-31.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Government expenditure | ₹16,300 crore |
| Expected investment by public sector undertakings | ₹18,000 crore |
| Total outlay | ₹34,300 crore |
| Exploration target | 1,200 exploration projects; over 100 critical mineral blocks auctioned by 2031 |
| Recovery from secondary sources | ₹100 crore for tailings, fly ash and red mud |
| Strategic stockpile | ₹500 crore |
KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Limited), set up in 2019 as a joint venture of NALCO, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited (MECL), acquires overseas critical-mineral assets. It holds lithium exploration blocks in Catamarca province, Argentina.
5.2 Magnet Scheme
Approved by the Union Cabinet on 26 November 2025.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Total outlay | ₹7,280 crore over seven years |
| Sales-linked incentive | ₹6,450 crore, over five years of sales |
| Capital subsidy | ₹750 crore |
| Target capacity | 6,000 tonnes a year of sintered NdFeB magnets |
| Beneficiaries | Five, up to 1,200 tonnes a year each, selected by global competitive bidding |
| Scope | Integrated manufacture from rare-earth oxide to metal, alloy and finished magnet |
| Indian consumption at approval | About 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes a year, all imported |
The two named components add up to ₹7,200 crore of the ₹7,280 crore outlay. NdFeB (neodymium-iron-boron) magnets are the strongest commercial permanent magnets and are used in electric vehicle traction motors, wind turbines, electronics and defence systems. Small additions of dysprosium or terbium keep them magnetised at high temperatures.
5.3 Subsidy per Tonne
- annual capacity target
- incentive period, assuming full capacity is sold each year
At an assumed magnet price of about ₹55 lakh a tonne, the sales incentive is roughly 39% of the selling price. NdFeB prices fluctuate widely, so this percentage indicates the order of magnitude only. Paying the incentive on sales rather than on capacity follows the design of India's earlier production-linked incentive schemes for mobile phone assembly and bulk drugs.
6. Magnet Feedstock
6.1 Requirement
A sintered NdFeB magnet is about 30% rare-earth content by mass, mostly neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr).
- REPM target capacity
- approximate rare-earth content of sintered NdFeB
6.2 Domestic Supply
- India's 2025 rare-earth production (USGS 2026)
- approximate NdPr fraction of a monazite-derived REO mix
Current output would supply about one third of the requirement. Supplying all of it would take about 9,000 tonnes of REO a year, roughly three times current output. That equals 9,000 / 390,000 ≈ 2.3% of world rare-earth mine production, less than current output from Australia (29,000 t), Burma (22,000 t) or the United States (51,000 t).
Neither percentage is exact. The magnet grade (dysprosium content) and the ore mineralogy both change the answer. Any reasonable pair of assumptions still gives the same result: the required mining volume is small, and ore is not the binding constraint.
6.3 Sand to Magnet
| Stage | Description | Status in India |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mine beach sands | Heavy-mineral sands in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha | Established |
| 2. Crack monazite | Chemical breakdown of monazite; thorium residue separated | Within the atomic-energy framework (IREL) |
| 3. Separate elements | Hundreds of solvent-extraction stages to produce individual oxides | Limited capacity; roughly 4 to 6 years to build a new plant |
| 4. Oxide to magnet | Reduce oxide to metal, alloy, mill, press, sinter, machine, coat, magnetise | Scope of the REPM scheme |
The REPM scheme funds stage 4, starting from oxide. Stages 2 and 3 are outside its scope. Magnet plants can run on imported separated oxide, most of which currently comes from China. That would establish domestic magnet manufacturing, but the import dependency would move upstream from magnets to oxide rather than disappear.
A magnet scheme can meet its capacity target while India stays dependent on imported separated oxide. Feedstock origin is the variable that decides whether supply security improves. Scheme output alone does not show it.
6.4 Other Constraints
- Qualification. Automotive and defence buyers typically test a new magnet supplier for one to three years, in addition to the scheme's two-year gestation period.
- Price risk. Chinese rare-earth prices fell for most of 2021 to 2024. A domestic industry sized against current prices is exposed to price cuts by the dominant producer (Part 1, section 4.2).
- Demand relative to capacity. The 6,000-tonne target is above India's current consumption of 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes a year, so full use of capacity assumes demand growth or exports.
7. Key Entities
| Entity | Listed | Position in the chain |
|---|---|---|
| IREL (India) Limited | No (PSU under DAE) | Beach sand mining, monazite processing, rare-earth separation |
| KABIL | No (JV of NALCO, Hindustan Copper, MECL) | Overseas acquisition, including lithium exploration in Argentina |
| GMDC | Yes | Developing the Ambadungar carbonatite rare-earth deposit in Gujarat (light rare earths, including NdPr); stage 1 |
| Hindustan Copper | Yes | Copper mining; KABIL partner; rare-earth recovery from tailings discussed, not in production |
| NALCO | Yes | Integrated bauxite, alumina and aluminium; KABIL partner; a possible site for gallium recovery (section 3.2) |
| Hindustan Zinc | Yes | Zinc and lead; awarded a potash block in Rajasthan and a rare-earth block in Uttar Pradesh (licences, not mines) |
| MOIL, NMDC | Yes | Manganese ore and iron ore producers |
| UCIL | No (PSU under DAE) | Uranium mining; same institutional structure as IREL |
The step that currently limits supply, separation, is carried out by an unlisted government company. Listed companies are exposed mainly to other stages. The same holds for uranium, where UCIL is the producer (see copper and uranium). The general method of reading a company's disclosures for its actual business, rather than the theme attached to it, is covered in how to read annual reports.
8. E-Waste
India generates large volumes of electronic waste, and most of it is processed in the informal sector. The informal and formal sectors have opposite strengths:
| Sector | Collection reach | Metal recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Informal | High | Copper and visible gold recovered; palladium, tantalum, gallium and indium largely lost; high health and environmental costs |
| Formal | Low | Higher recovery across more metals |
The regulatory framework is the E-Waste (Management) Rules, first issued in 2016 and replaced by the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, in force from 1 April 2023. The 2022 rules put extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations on manufacturers and set recycling targets. Under EPR, producers must pay for collection and recycling of the products they sell. The volume that reaches formal recyclers depends mainly on enforcement. The economics of formal recycling therefore depend more on regulation than on technology.
Gallium in alumina refinery residue and minor metals in e-waste are both recovery problems involving material that India already handles. Recovery projects generally need less capital and shorter lead times than new mines.
9. Indicators
The following observable events show whether the policy programmes are changing India's supply position:
- REPM bid outcomes. Whether the five beneficiaries are established magnet producers with technology partners or first-time entrants.
- Separation capacity. Commissioning of a solvent-extraction facility, with stated throughput and product specification.
- Feedstock disclosure. Whether the first REPM magnets use domestic or imported oxide.
- USGS annual line for India. Rare-earth production has stayed at about 2,900 tonnes. The 2027 and 2028 editions of Mineral Commodity Summaries give an independent annual record.
- Thorium management. Any framework for storing or using thorium residue from expanded monazite processing.
- Gallium recovery. A recovery circuit at an Indian alumina refinery, which the NCMM red mud provision could support.
10. Limitations
- USGS reports on India with a lag and relies partly on Indian Bureau of Mines data. The Indian Bureau of Mines' National Mineral Inventory uses a different classification (UNFC), so its figures are not directly comparable with USGS reserves.
- Shares are computed against published country figures only. Where USGS withholds several countries, India's share has a partial denominator.
- IREL does not publish separation capacity or output in a form comparable with the REPM target. Actual separation capability may be larger than public sources indicate.
- Tonnage figures say nothing about ore grade, strip ratio or power cost, which determine whether a deposit is economic.
- The positions of the companies in section 7 reflect announced activities as of September 2026.
Key Points
- India ranks first in the world in four industrial minerals and is a large producer of iron ore, steel, zinc, bauxite and aluminium. It has no recorded production of 23 critical minerals, including cobalt, lithium, nickel, gallium, tungsten and potash.
- India's graphite reserves are 2.8% of the world total, eighth largest, against 1% of world output. Kyanite is its most prominent reserve position.
- India and China are the only countries with balanced positions across bauxite, alumina and aluminium. India's bauxite contains about 1,250 tonnes of gallium a year and none is recovered.
- Monazite contains thorium, so India's rare earths sit under the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and Part B of the MMDR Act. The 2023 reform freed six other minerals but not rare earths.
- The Ministry of Mines reports 7.23 million tonnes of in-situ REO in monazite, about 2,500 years of current output. Ore is not the constraint.
- The REPM scheme (₹7,280 crore, 6,000 t/yr) needs about 1,800 t/yr of NdPr, against about 580 t/yr implied by current output. Closing the gap requires 2.3% of world mine output, and separation capacity is the binding step.
- The NCMM (₹34,300 crore) funds exploration, overseas assets, a stockpile and recovery from red mud and tailings. Recovery projects need the least capital and have the shortest lead times.
References
- U.S. Geological Survey (2026). Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, version 1.3. doi.org/10.3133/mcs2026. India rows in world production and reserves tables; rare earths, graphite, kyanite, bauxite and alumina, gallium chapters.
- Ministry of Mines, Government of India (2025). Reply to parliamentary question on rare earth minerals, 23 July 2025, released by the Press Information Bureau. Mirror: globalsecurity.org. In-situ REO resources; atomic minerals omitted in 2023; private exploration agencies.
- Press Information Bureau (2025). "Cabinet approves National Critical Mineral Mission ... with an outlay of Rs. 34,300 crore over seven years", 29 January 2025. pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2097309.
- Mongabay India (2025). "India approves mission to bridge critical mineral gap in energy transition", February 2025. india.mongabay.com. NCMM exploration, recovery and stockpile allocations; KABIL.
- Prime Minister's Office (2025). "Cabinet approves Rs. 7,280 crore scheme to promote manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets (REPM)", 26 November 2025. pmindia.gov.in.
- Down To Earth (2025). "Centre approves Rs 7,280 crore scheme to cut rare earth magnet imports", November 2025. downtoearth.org.in. Integrated oxide-to-magnet scope; Indian consumption of 4,000 to 5,000 t/yr.
- Government of India. Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (Act 33 of 1962), and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, First Schedule. indiacode.nic.in.
- PRS Legislative Research. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023 and Amendment Bill, 2025. prsindia.org/billtrack.
- Down To Earth (2025). "Critical, strategic and atomic mineral mining projects in India can now be approved without public hearing". downtoearth.org.in.
- IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute (2025). "Andhra Pradesh's Rare Earth Strategy, 2025". impriindia.com.
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (2022). E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, notified November 2022, effective 1 April 2023. moef.gov.in.
- Part 1 of these notes: How mineral supply chains work.
Disclaimer
Nothing on this site is investment advice. All content is for educational and informational purposes only. Do your own research and consult a registered financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
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Software Engineer, Self-Taught Investor
Software engineer who started learning about money in 2016 after a layoff coincided with a new home loan. Went from bank deposits to mutual funds to picking stocks in India and the US, learning through YouTube, screener.in, TradingView, and the hard way. Still learning. This site is her notes made public — for education and sharing only, not financial advice.
