On Thursday, the Union Government shared that 5.9 million tons of lithium reserves have been found for the first time in the country. The reserves are in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir. Reasi is a little North of Jammu city. (Screen grab from Google maps)
Lithium is a non-ferrous metal and is one of the key components in EV batteries.
“Geological Survey of India (GSI) for the first time established Lithium inferred resources (G3) of 5.9 million tons in the Salal-Haimana area of the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Ministry of Mines shared in a press release.
The top lithium producing countries of the world are Australia, Chile, China, Argentina.
What does it mean?
This means that the Geological Survey of India has conducted surveys (research) on the ground using advanced technology to study the ground and check if there are any mineral deposits underneath.
GSI does this using various techniques. You can understand some of them through the video below.
Once GSI finds mineral blocks, they are handed over to the government. THe government then decides who will mine in the area to get the mineral. Usually, it is done either by a government owned company or by a private company in partnership with a government company. There are also strict rules on how this mineral reserve can be used and who it can be sold to.
Why is this important?
Lithium is the main element in lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are used in mobile phones and Electric vehicles. This makes lithium an important element. Today, India is importing lithium. Having our own lithium reserve will make it possible for batter manufacturers to make batteries in India at a lower price.
Other mineral blocks also handed over
51 mineral blocks from them including Lithium and Gold were handed over to respective state governments.
“Out of these 51 mineral blocks, 5 blocks pertain to gold and other blocks pertain to commodities like potash, molybdenum, base metals etc. spread across 11 states of Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana,” the ministry added.
The blocks were prepared based on the work carried out by GSI from field seasons 2018-19 to till date.
Apart from these, 17 reports of Coal and Lignite with a total resource of 7897 million tons were also handed over to the Ministry of Coal.
Other rare mineral resources in India
India’s only other Lithium reserve is in Karnataka, a small reserve of 1600 tonnes.
Two years ago, Uranium was discovered in Rajasthan and Vanadium in Arunachal Pradesh.
-Inputs by Diganta Lahiri