Industry leaders call for accelerated critical mineral development
India needs to accelerate critical mineral development through faster mining approvals, greater recycling, and wider adoption of artificial intelligence and digital technologies if it wants to build a self-reliant minerals and metals sector, industry leaders said on the sidelines of the 15th India Minerals and Metals Forum in the national capital on Wednesday.
Speaking to ANI, ICC National Expert Committee Chairperson Pankaj Satija said the country's critical minerals strategy must increasingly focus beyond fresh mining, and tap opportunities in recycling and recovery from industrial byproducts.
Three major directions for critical minerals
"There are three major directions on critical minerals: one from the virgin mines, second from the core products, and third is the recycling," Satija said. He added that recycling is becoming a bigger part of India's critical minerals journey. "I am saying that recycling and core products are taking bigger leads in the journey of critical minerals... There is nothing like the end; the end of anything is the beginning of a new thing, and they see a greater recycling opportunity, which many Indian companies are taking, and also the recovery of critical minerals from the core products and the byproducts," he said.
Government initiatives and international cooperation
Satija also pointed to recent government initiatives to strengthen international cooperation in the sector. "The government has taken a lot of leads in the recent US-India interactions, a partnership in Pax Silica," he said.
Meanwhile, Lloyd Metals & Energy Ltd Executive Director (Exploration and Beneficiation) R R Sathpathy said India's mining sector must align itself with the country's "Viksit Bharat" vision by focusing on sustainable and responsible mining practices while addressing execution challenges.
Sustainability and responsible mining
"The mining industry should have an approach to Viksit Bharat. So there are a lot of attributes. One of the attributes is environmental sustainability or carbon emissions. How the mining industry can contribute and can be carbon neutral?.. That is the takeaway. Environmental sustainability, and from sustainability, how we can go for responsible mining," Sathpathy said.
He said the industry is making progress through collaboration among governments and businesses. "The mining industry and metal industry also have challenges, but with the mutual cooperation between the central government, state government and the industrialists, things are running very well on the right track, and challenges are being addressed by all the stakeholders," he said.
Speed and young talent crucial for future growth
According to Sathpathy, improving the speed of project execution and attracting young talent will be crucial for the sector's future growth. "So here the challenge is speed... Speed is required. And the second challenge is how to motivate the young generation or how to deal with the young generation so that they can come up with AI and digitalisation, which will actually bring the speed," he said.
The comments came on the sidelines of the 15th India Minerals and Metals Forum, where the inaugural session focused on the theme, 'India's Minerals & Metals Sector: Building Self-Reliance.'
