Miscellaneous
India passes law allowing private firms to bid for and mine lithium
- India’s Parliament passed a law allowing the government to auction and mine its newly-discovered reserves of lithium, among other minerals, increasing the mining of the critical input for EV batteries.
- Under the law, lithium, along with other minerals was removed from a previous list of atomic minerals, which prevented it from being auctioned to private companies.
- Upon removal exploration and mining of these minerals will be open to private sector.
- As a result, exploration and mining of these minerals is expected to increase significantly in the country.
NOTE
- Lithium reserves were discovered in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Other minerals that will now be open for mining and auction include titanium, beryl, niobium and zirconium.
- These minerals were earlier only allowed to be mined by state-run companies.
