India's Strategy for Critical Minerals

India's transition to clean energy heavily relies on imported critical minerals and rare earths, with China currently imposing export controls. To address this, India is diversifying its mineral trade linkages and fostering responsible production through a two-pronged strategy: enhancing domestic capacity and securing international access.

International Partnerships

• Australia: A reliable partner due to political stability and large reserves. Active cooperation includes the India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership, targeting investments in lithium and cobalt.
• Japan: Offers resilience models through diversification, stockpiling, recycling, and R&D. The partnership includes potential joint extraction processing and stockpiling of minerals.
• Africa: Agreements with Namibia for lithium, rare earths, and uranium, and talks in Zambia for copper and cobalt highlight India's pivot to Africa as a mineral source.
• United States: Cooperation has been limited due to trade issues, but frameworks like the TRUST Initiative aim to foster joint work on rare-earth processing and clean technologies.
• European Union: With its Critical Raw Materials Act and other initiatives, the EU provides a model for integrating regulation, sustainability, and industrial strategy.
• West Asia: UAE and Saudi Arabia are key for midstream mineral processing, while Russia offers diversification options amidst challenges.
• Latin America and Canada: Engaging in these regions is crucial for copper, nickel, and rare-earth strategies, with notable agreements like Argentina's ₹200 crore deal and a trilateral pact with Canada.

Key Challenges and Recommendations

• India must enhance domestic refining and midstream capability to mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.
• Technology, innovation, and project implementation are crucial for ensuring the success of mineral partnerships.
• The need for a clear strategic vision in partnerships, focusing on existing relations before branching out to new ones.
• Strengthening India's domestic framework for responsible mining, with a focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.

Conclusion

India has established a robust network of critical mineral partnerships. The focus now is on deepening effective collaborations, revisiting and improving less effective ones, and ensuring technological and long-term stability to sustain its clean energy transition.