Key Highlights
- Battery scrap and used magnets are emerging as a strategic supplement to mining.
- Here's a dive into India's gameplanThe parliamentary standing committee on coal, mines and steel has recommended the promotion of so-called ‘urban mines’—the recovery of minerals from waste streams such as used batteries and discarded electronics—as part of its recommendations on mineral and metal self-reliance made on 17 December. The push comes as battery recycling gathers pace, with companies starting to recover critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements from secondary sources. This strategy is expected to supplement the government’s efforts to localise the production of rare earth magnets, a key input for sectors ranging from defence and electronics to renewable energy and electric vehicles. Mint unpacks the committee's recommendations and India's ambitions for rare earth magnets. Why is India’s mineral security a national imperative?Critical mineral security assumes significance amid geopolitical uncertainties and trade wars as nations try to leverage their resources to disrupt supply chains. China’s export ban on rare earth magnets in April 2025, which disrupted manufacturing supply chains globally, resulted from an escalating trade war, with the world’s second-largest economy retaliating to steep US tariffs. Beijing used its dominance in the sector–60% of the world’s rare earth mining and 90% of the world’s processing capacity–as a tool to disrupt supply chains, pushing manufacturers across the globe into a frenzy. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in its Sustainable Development Goals Pulse 2025 report in July this year, noted that minerals required for the energy transition – copper, zinc, germanium, tin, and nickel, among others – faced higher export restrictions compared to other traded critical minerals.
- “This trend reflects rising geopolitical sensitivities and growing domestic value chain ambitions in producing countries,” the report noted. The International Energy Agency narrowed and simplified this sentiment, focusing on how critical minerals are shaping the energy transition.
- Its Global Critical Minerals outlook 2025 noted that demand for cobalt and rare earths increased 6-8% in 2024, “driven by energy applications such as electric vehicles, battery storage, renewables and grid networks”.
- Also Read | Mint Explainer: How does the incentive package for rare earth magnets work?India, in its ambition to produce rare earth magnets, plans to leverage its domestic stockpile of 6.9 million tons of rare earth deposits along its coastline, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters while announcing a ₹7,280-crore incentive package for potential magnet makers on 26 November. New Delhi-based think tank Centre For Energy, Environment and Water noted in September that India relies heavily on imports to meet its critical mineral needs, making it vulnerable to market fluctuations and supply disruptions. What are the secondary sources of these critical minerals?For import-dependent economies, secondary sources—materials recovered from waste—offer a faster and potentially less capital-intensive route to securing critical mineral supplies. The committee, therefore, called for the promotion of ‘urban mines’ to fuel critical minerals processing.
