Tag: India passes law allowing private firms to bid for and mine lithium

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.