India Critical Minerals Timeline 2025–2030: Lithium, Rare Earths & the China Challenge
India's critical-mineral strategy to 2030: lithium, rare earths, KABIL Argentina, the National Critical Mineral Mission, magnet scheme and China risk.
India’s demand for lithium, rare earths and other critical minerals is rising fast as it builds electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar and storage systems, semiconductors, electronics and defence hardware at home. Every one of those products ends in a factory — but the harder contest happens far earlier, at the mine, the processing plant, the refinery and the magnet line. That midstream is where China holds a decades-deep lead, and it is where India’s plan for a more resilient supply chain will succeed or fail. This page tracks that effort as a living record, updated as policy and projects move.
🧠 The short answer
India’s critical-mineral problem is not mainly about finding deposits. It is about building the processing and manufacturing capacity that turns ore into refined metal, alloy, battery material and permanent magnets. Since 2023 India has listed critical minerals, changed its mining law twice, taken lithium exploration rights in Argentina through KABIL, launched the National Critical Mineral Mission, a recycling scheme and a ₹7,280 crore magnet scheme, and announced four Rare Earth Corridors. Most of this is still framework and early execution. China remains dominant in refining and magnets, so India’s realistic aim through 2030 is to reduce dependence and diversify supply, not to become self-sufficient.
India Critical Minerals: Key Questions
What to know about India’s critical-mineral race
- The bottleneck is midstream. Ore must become oxide, then metal, then alloy, then magnet or battery material. India is thin at every one of those stages except early processing.
- Critical minerals are a policy category, not a chemistry group. They include lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, rare earths, gallium, germanium, tungsten, vanadium and more. Rare earths are one specific set of elements inside that list.
- India moved fast on policy from 2023. A critical-mineral list, MMDR amendments enabling central auctions, KABIL’s Argentina deal, the NCMM, a recycling scheme, a magnet scheme and Rare Earth Corridors.
- Overseas, the one hard milestone is Argentina. Five KABIL lithium-brine exploration blocks. Other countries are cooperation, due diligence or MOUs, not acquisitions.
- China’s April 2025 export controls were the turning point. Licensing requirements on seven rare-earth elements and magnets — a control regime, not a permanent ban — disrupted global automakers, India included.
- China’s lead is uneven across the chain. Roughly two-thirds of mining, but a much larger share of refining and magnet production. One percentage does not describe the whole supply chain.
- Domestic lithium is a resource, not a reserve. The 5.9-million-tonne Reasi inferred resource in Jammu and Kashmir failed to attract bids twice and is being re-explored.
- India already has a rare-earth industry. IREL runs extraction and refining units; the gap is metal, alloy and sintered-magnet capacity, plus the thorium-linked rules on monazite.
- Recycling matters but cannot fill the 2030 gap alone. In a fast-growing market there are simply not enough end-of-life batteries and magnets yet.
- The honest 2030 goal is diversification. Reduce dependence, build domestic capability and secure overseas supply — not full independence.
What Is a Critical Mineral?
Answer first, then the common confusions.
A critical mineral is a material judged economically or strategically important whose supply chain carries significant risk because mining, processing or trade is concentrated in a few countries. “Critical” is about supply risk, not geological rarity. A mineral can be relatively common in the earth’s crust and still be critical because refining or manufacturing is concentrated — rare earths are the classic example.
India maintains an official list of critical minerals identified by an expert committee under the Ministry of Mines in 2023, and the Mines and Minerals law now defines a set of critical and strategic minerals that the Union government can auction directly. The exact count varies by document and has been revised, so this page refers to “the government’s critical-mineral list” rather than fixing a single number.
⚠️ Critical minerals and rare earths are not the same thing
Rare earths are a specific group of 17 chemical elements — the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are the ones that matter most for magnets.
Critical minerals are a broader policy basket that can include lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, rare-earth elements, gallium, germanium, tungsten, vanadium, titanium and others. “Rare earth” is not a synonym for “critical mineral”, and rare earths do not go inside lithium-ion battery cells.
From Mineral to Industry
Each material follows its own path from the ground to a finished product.
India’s Four-Layer Mineral Strategy
India Critical Minerals Timeline
Newest first. Each entry separates confirmed policy from framework-stage announcements.
Mining law changes again: MMDR Amendment Act, 2026
What it does: Parliament passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026. Its scope is broader than critical minerals — it aims at a more uniform fiscal framework by restricting some state levies on mineral rights, and at investment certainty in exploration.
Critical-mineral angle: the Act broadens the resource base leaseholders can work, allows adding minerals to an existing lease (with no extra payment for critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt), and adjusts provisions around deep-seated minerals and the exploration ecosystem funded through NMEDT.
Eighth auction tranche: 20 critical and strategic mineral blocks
What was offered: 20 blocks across nine states — 3 mining leases and 17 composite licences — covering graphite, rare-earth elements, rare metals, vanadium, gallium, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, potash, phosphorite and glauconite. Thirteen were newly identified; seven were re-offered after an earlier attempt.
Cumulative position: since auctions began, the ministry reports about 88 critical and strategic mineral blocks launched, of which roughly 56 have been successfully auctioned — a success rate near 63 percent. A roadshow for this tranche was held in Patna on 17 August 2026.
KABIL clears deep exploration in Argentina
Milestone: KABIL received environmental clearance from Argentine authorities to begin deep exploration on its five Catamarca lithium-brine blocks. The company has indicated an investment of about ₹200 crore in exploration and development, with any production estimated around 2029 after feasibility work.
More on offer: Catamarca has offered KABIL seven additional greenfield lithium-brine blocks under the existing framework, which the company is evaluating.
Budget 2026–27 announces four Rare Earth Corridors
Announcement: dedicated Rare Earth Corridors in Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, aimed at mining, processing, research and manufacturing in a concentrated geography.
Status: as of official updates through mid-2026, a joint working group was being constituted to frame guidelines and standard operating procedures. The corridors are announced and being structured, not operational. This page labels them framework under development.
REPM magnet scheme moves to bidding
Process: the request for proposals for the sintered rare-earth permanent-magnet scheme was released on 20 March 2026, with a pre-bid conference on 7 April 2026. Beneficiary selection is competitive; the scheme envisages five units.
Caution: bid deadlines have shifted during the process. Check the latest Ministry of Heavy Industries notification for current status before treating any single date as live.
₹7,280 crore rare-earth magnet manufacturing scheme approved
Goal: establish about 6,000 tonnes per annum of integrated sintered rare-earth permanent-magnet capacity, structured as five units of roughly 1,200 TPA each, with output expected in two to three years after set-up.
Structure: total outlay ₹7,280 crore — sales-linked incentives of ₹6,450 crore over five years plus a capital subsidy (the Cabinet release states ₹750 crore; some later parliamentary material cites ₹730 crore, an unresolved discrepancy readers should trace to the notified scheme document).
Why it matters: India currently consumes an estimated 4,000–5,000 TPA of permanent magnets, effectively all imported. The scheme targets the oxide-to-metal-to-alloy-to-magnet gap, not just mining.
₹1,500 crore critical-mineral recycling scheme launched
What it funds: a 20 percent capex subsidy plus an opex subsidy for plants that recover critical minerals from secondary sources — e-waste, lithium-ion battery scrap and other eligible waste. Tenure is six years, FY2025–26 to FY2030–31; the first application window ran 2 October 2025 to 1 April 2026.
Target: the scheme’s stated outcome is developing at least 270 kilotonnes of annual recycling capacity. Industry response has been strong, with proposed capacity from applicants reported well above that target.
GSI and NMEDT scale up exploration
Scope: GSI’s FS 2025–26 programme included roughly 1,065 scientific programmes and about 400 mineral-development projects, of which around 227 targeted critical and strategic commodities — rare earths, rare metals, graphite, lithium, vanadium and platinum-group elements — a roughly 16 percent year-on-year increase, with about ₹300 crore directed at critical-mineral work.
Context: GSI and NMEDT are working toward about 1,200 critical-mineral projects across FY2024–25 to FY2030–31. That figure counts exploration projects, not mines.
China tightens rare-earth exports
The action: China imposed export-licensing requirements on seven rare-earth elements — samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium — and related magnets. Exporters now need case-by-case approval. This is an export-control regime, not a complete permanent ban.
The impact: shipments fell sharply in April and May 2025; automakers in the US, Europe and Asia struggled to secure magnets, some cutting output. Controls were later widened to add five more elements (holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, ytterbium), with partial pauses and adjustments through 2025–26.
Indian automakers flag magnet supply risk
What happened: Indian vehicle makers and component suppliers raised concerns over licensing delays for rare-earth magnets used in many traction motors and other components, warning of possible production disruption. Inter-ministerial reviews followed, and companies accelerated testing of magnet-lean and rare-earth-free motor designs.
Nuance: not every Indian EV uses the same motor design, and alternatives exist — but switching is an engineering and validation exercise, not a flip of a switch.
National Critical Mineral Mission approved
Scope: a seven-year mission (2024–25 to 2030–31) covering the full value chain — exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, recycling, R&D, skilling and overseas acquisition — under a coordinated structure led by the Ministry of Mines.
The money: total outlay of about ₹34,300 crore, of which ₹16,300 crore is central government funding through the budget and roughly ₹18,000 crore is expected investment by public-sector undertakings and private industry. The government’s own spending framework is a fraction of the headline number.
KABIL signs Argentina lithium agreement
The deal: Khanij Bidesh India Limited signed an agreement with Catamarca Minera y Energética (CAMYEN), a state enterprise of Catamarca province, for exploration and development rights over five lithium-brine blocks — Cortadera I, VI, VII and VIII plus one Cateo block — covering about 15,703 hectares.
What India got: exploration and exclusivity rights, with potential exploitation rights subject to successful discovery and development. This is India’s first state-backed overseas move for battery-grade raw material.
India lists critical minerals and rewrites the mining rules
The list: an expert committee under the Ministry of Mines published India’s first dedicated list of critical minerals in 2023, prioritising materials for energy, mobility, electronics and defence.
The law: the MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 empowered the Union government to auction certain critical and strategic mineral blocks directly, opened exploration licences to the private sector, and removed several minerals from the restricted “atomic” list — the legal basis for every auction tranche since.
GSI reports a lithium resource in Jammu and Kashmir
The find: GSI announced an inferred (G3-stage) lithium resource of about 5.9 million tonnes in the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district. It was widely reported as a breakthrough for a country with near-total lithium import dependence.
What followed: the block was offered for auction twice (November 2024 and again in 2025) and drew no valid bids, on concerns over commercial viability, extraction complexity and local conditions. The Ministry of Mines directed GSI to re-explore and upgrade the resource before re-auction.
India Critical Mineral Block Auction Tracker
Auctions award rights. They do not start production.
| Tranche | Launched | Blocks | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st–6th | Nov 2023 – 2025 | ~48 blocks | First central critical/strategic auctions under MMDR 2023; mix of mining leases and composite licences; several blocks annulled for insufficient bids and re-offered. |
| 7th | 23 Mar 2026 | Multiple blocks | Continued rollout across states; graphite, REE, vanadium, tungsten and others. |
| 8th | 15 Jul 2026 | 20 blocks / 9 states | 3 mining leases + 17 composite licences. Graphite, REE, rare metals, vanadium, gallium, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, potash, phosphorite, glauconite. 13 new + 7 re-offered. |
| Cumulative | To Aug 2026 | ~88 launched / ~56 awarded | Ministry of Mines cites a success rate near 63%. “Awarded” means a preferred bidder, not an operating mine. |
Status sequence for any block: identified → auctioned → lease or licence → exploration → approvals → mine development → production. A successful auction is step two of seven.
China’s Advantage Is Bigger Than Mining
The lead is uneven across the chain — and largest downstream.
China’s rare-earth dominance is not a single number. It is strongest in the middle and end of the chain — separation, refining and magnet manufacturing — and comparatively less absolute in mining, where the United States, Australia and Myanmar all contribute meaningful volume.
| Stage | Approximate China share | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Rare-earth mining | ~70% | Dominant but not exclusive; other countries mine at scale. |
| Refining / separation | ~85–90% | The real chokepoint. Separating individual rare earths is chemically hard and capital-heavy. |
| Alloy & sintered magnet production | ~90%+ | Where finished-product supply risk concentrates. |
These figures come from reputable industry and agency reporting and shift year to year; treat them as orders of magnitude, not precise constants, and never apply one percentage to the entire supply chain.
Which Minerals Is India Most Dependent On?
Import reliance, by mineral. Figures are indicative and dated where possible.
| Mineral | Primary use | Import position | Domestic base | 2030 strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | Battery cells, storage | Effectively 100% imported; ~18,200 t of compounds in 2025, ~68% from China, ~24% from Chile | Reasi resource (inferred); refining capacity near zero | KABIL Argentina, re-explore Reasi, build refining |
| Rare earths (magnets) | EV motors, wind, defence | Finished magnets largely imported | IREL mining + some oxide; limited metal/alloy/magnet | REPM scheme, Rare Earth Corridors |
| Cobalt | Some battery chemistries | Refined cobalt largely imported; domestic refining ~2,000 t/yr | Minor; by-product potential | Recycling, overseas sourcing, LFP shift reduces need |
| Nickel | High-nickel batteries, steel | High import reliance for battery-grade | Limited battery-grade capacity | Overseas offtake; LFP chemistry lowers exposure |
| Graphite | Battery anodes | Natural graphite mined domestically; battery-grade processing limited | Resources in several states; auctioned blocks | Anode-grade processing, auctions |
| Gallium / germanium | Semiconductors, optics, defence | Import-dependent; both under Chinese export controls since 2023 | By-product potential from alumina/zinc | Recovery from process streams, R&D |
Every percentage in a critical-mineral story should carry a year, a product definition and a source. Mining share and magnet-manufacturing share are different measurements and must not be mixed.
India vs China, Australia and the US
| Capability | India | China | Australia | United States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rare-earth resources | Significant | Very large | Significant | Significant |
| Mining | Developing | Large | Large | Limited / expanding |
| Separation & refining | Limited / expanding | Dominant | Expanding | Expanding |
| Magnet manufacturing | Limited / new scheme | Dominant | Emerging | Expanding |
| Lithium | Import-dependent | Major processor | Major miner | Expanding |
| Recycling | New incentives | Large ecosystem | Developing | Developing |
India Already Has a Rare-Earth Industry — But Not a Complete Chain
India’s rare-earth capability did not start in 2025. IREL (India) Limited, a public-sector undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy, has processed monazite-bearing beach sands for decades. Its facilities include a rare-earth extraction plant in Odisha and a rare-earth refining unit at Aluva, Kerala, producing mixed and some separated rare-earth compounds.
The gap is downstream. India has limited capacity to convert oxides into rare-earth metal, then alloy, then sintered permanent magnets — the stages that a motor or turbine actually needs. That is precisely the gap the REPM scheme and the Rare Earth Corridors are meant to close.
India’s rare-earth resource base — read the numbers carefully
Official material from early 2026 cites on the order of 482.6 million tonnes of rare-earth-bearing ore resources in the GSI resource framework. A separate Department of Atomic Energy / Atomic Minerals Directorate measure reports about 13.15 million tonnes of monazite across roughly 136 beach-sand deposits, containing a smaller quantity of rare-earth oxides plus thorium.
These figures measure different things and must not be compared directly or collapsed into “India has 482.6 million tonnes of rare earths.” Ore resource is not contained rare-earth oxide, and neither is refined rare-earth metal.
If India has monazite, why import magnets?
Several reasons at once: much of the monazite is in coastal sands with environmental and community constraints; monazite carries radioactive thorium, so it is regulated as an atomic mineral and cannot be freely mined by any private company; separating individual rare earths is chemically complex; and India lacks sufficient metal, alloy and magnet capacity in the middle of the chain. Having the resource does not mean having the finished magnet.
The REPM Magnet Scheme, in Detail
The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets, approved 26 November 2025, is India’s single largest bet on the magnet gap.
- Total outlay: ₹7,280 crore.
- Sales-linked incentives: ₹6,450 crore over five years, paid on REPM sales.
- Capital subsidy: ₹750 crore per the Cabinet release; some later parliamentary material states ₹730 crore. This page flags the discrepancy rather than silently choosing one — the operative figure is whatever the notified scheme and RFP specify.
- Capacity: about 6,000 tonnes per annum, as five units of roughly 1,200 TPA.
- Beneficiaries: five, selected competitively. No winners are named here because selection was not finalised in public records at the time of writing.
- Process: RFP released 20 March 2026; pre-bid conference 7 April 2026; bid timelines have since moved — verify current status with the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
The scheme deliberately targets the integrated path — oxide to metal to alloy to magnet — because importing oxide and still lacking magnet lines would leave the dependency intact.
Recycling: Necessary, Not Sufficient by 2030
The ₹1,500 crore recycling incentive scheme supports plants that recover critical minerals from e-waste, lithium-ion battery scrap and other secondary streams, with a 20 percent capex subsidy and a phased opex subsidy over FY2025–26 to FY2030–31. Its stated outcome is at least 270 kilotonnes of annual recycling capacity, and applicant interest has run well above that.
Two cautions. First, recycling capacity is an input-processing figure — tonnes of feedstock a plant can handle — not tonnes of refined critical mineral it will yield. Do not restate pledged capacity as recovered mineral output. Second, in a market where EV and renewable deployment is still ramping, there are not yet enough end-of-life batteries and magnets to recycle at the scale demand will require. Recycling is a growing secondary supply, not a 2030 substitute for mining and processing.
Processing Parks: Mining Is Only Half the Problem
Under the NCMM, the government has moved to support critical-mineral processing parks — shared infrastructure clusters for beneficiation and chemical processing — with early support directed at sites in states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and Maharashtra. Status ranges from approved support to site identification; none should be described as operational without confirmation.
This reflects the core insight of the whole strategy: mineral resource → mine → beneficiation → chemical processing → refining → battery or magnet material. China’s strategic advantage is strongest in processing and manufacturing, so “India needs more mines” is only part of the answer. India needs the plants that sit between the mine and the factory.
Lithium: Why It Matters, and Where India Stands
Lithium’s primary role is the lithium-ion battery — EVs, grid storage, electronics. Government material through 2026 describes India’s current lithium demand as met almost entirely by imports, with domestic refining capacity effectively zero.
Resource vs reserve
A resource is a geologically identified concentration, reported at varying levels of confidence (inferred, indicated, measured). A reserve is the part of a resource shown to be economically mineable under defined technical and economic conditions. The Reasi lithium find is an inferred resource. Calling it a reserve — or “India’s lithium mine” — overstates where it is.
The Lithium Triangle
Argentina, Chile and Bolivia hold a large share of global lithium, much of it in brines. KABIL’s Argentina activity gives India exploration exposure to this region. It does not mean India controls resources there.
Graphite, Cobalt, Nickel — and Battery Chemistry Nuance
Graphite is the main anode material in most lithium-ion batteries and is often left out of “lithium-only” framing. India mines natural graphite and has auctioned graphite blocks, but battery-grade (anode-grade) processing is limited.
Cobalt and nickel matter for some cathode chemistries but not all. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells use neither cobalt nor nickel and have taken a large share of the EV and storage market, which changes India’s exposure. No single “amount of cobalt per EV” figure is meaningful across chemistries.
The clean distinction to hold onto: lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite sit in the battery supply chain; rare-earth magnets sit in certain motors and generators. Rare earths are not inside EV battery cells.
Where Critical Minerals Meet Chips, Defence and Renewables
Gallium, germanium, tungsten
Used in compound semiconductors, interconnects, optics and specialty gases. China’s 2023 gallium and germanium controls made this a supply-security issue. Lithium is not a semiconductor feedstock — shared “critical” status does not mean shared use.
Rare-earth magnets and alloys
Permanent magnets and specialty materials feature in radar, guidance, actuators, communications, sensors and aircraft systems. This is a general dependency; platform-specific requirements are not detailed here.
Permanent-magnet generators
Many direct-drive wind-turbine generators use rare-earth permanent magnets — but not all turbine designs do. Geared designs can use other generator types.
Lithium, and increasingly LFP
Grid-scale storage leans on lithium chemistries. The shift toward LFP reduces cobalt and nickel exposure but keeps lithium and graphite central.
Why India Cannot Copy China’s Model Overnight
China spent roughly four decades building an integrated rare-earth industry: mines, chemical separation, refining, metal and alloy production, magnet manufacturing, and a domestic customer base of motor, turbine and electronics makers that keep those lines full. Each stage was built on the one before it.
India is trying to build several of those stages at once, from a smaller base, under time pressure, and with environmental and land constraints that China largely ignored in its early decades. That is why credible language is reduce dependence, diversify supply, build domestic capability — not “break China’s grip” or “achieve independence” on a 2030 timescale.
Clean Energy Needs Mining — and Mining Has Costs
Critical minerals enable decarbonisation, but extracting and processing them is not impact-free. Hard-rock mining involves land disturbance, tailings and waste; lithium-brine extraction raises water-use and ecosystem questions in arid regions such as parts of Argentina; and rare-earth separation generates chemical waste streams, with some ores carrying naturally radioactive thorium.
None of this argues against building the supply chain. It argues for doing it with real safeguards — water accounting, tailings management, community consent and processing standards — rather than treating “green minerals” as automatically clean.
2030 Watchlist — Targets, Not Facts
These are milestones to watch. None are guaranteed and none should be reported as achieved.
Reader Polls
What is India’s biggest critical-mineral challenge?
- Finding enough domestic deposits
- Developing mines quickly
- Processing and refining capacity
- Rare-earth magnet manufacturing
- Overseas supply security
- Recycling at scale
AiTimeline reader poll — not a scientific survey. Share your pick with us and we will publish running results as they build.
Can India significantly reduce its critical-mineral dependence by 2030?
- Yes
- Partly
- No
- Only with overseas partnerships
AiTimeline reader poll — not investment advice and not a scientific survey.
Featured Answers
Is lithium a rare-earth element?
No. Lithium is an alkali metal and is not one of the 17 rare-earth elements. It is critical mainly because of its role in lithium-ion batteries. Rare-earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium are instead important for high-performance permanent magnets used in many electric motors, wind turbines and other technologies.
Why is India dependent on China for rare earths?
India has rare-earth resources, but China dominates several downstream stages of the global supply chain, particularly separation, refining and permanent-magnet manufacturing. India is therefore expanding exploration, processing, magnet production, overseas sourcing and recycling rather than relying on mining alone.
Entity Map
Ministry of Mines → NCMM
Owns the National Critical Mineral Mission and the auction programme; oversees GSI and the NMEDT exploration trust.
GSI & NMEDT
GSI runs field-season geological work; NMEDT funds critical-mineral exploration projects toward the ~1,200 target.
KABIL × CAMYEN
KABIL holds the mandate for overseas acquisition; CAMYEN is its Catamarca counterpart on the Argentina lithium blocks.
IREL (India) Limited
Department of Atomic Energy PSU; runs rare-earth extraction (Odisha) and refining (Aluva, Kerala).
Ministry of Heavy Industries → REPM scheme
Runs the ₹7,280 crore sintered-magnet scheme and its competitive bidding.
Odisha · Kerala · Andhra Pradesh · Tamil Nadu
The four states named in Budget 2026–27 for Rare Earth Corridors, at guidelines stage.
People Also Ask
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Reading
⚠️ Editorial & sources note
This is a living tracker, editorial and AI-assisted, compiled from public records: the Ministry of Mines, PIB, GSI, KABIL, the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the Department of Atomic Energy and IREL, the Union Budget and Parliament, and Chinese export-control notifications for primary rules, supplemented by Reuters, the IEA, USGS and mainstream financial press. Figures for market share, import dependence and demand are dated and defined where possible; where a number is a target, forecast or framework-stage announcement, it is labelled as such. Nothing here is investment advice.
How we classify projects: Exploration — geological work underway. Resource — identified geological material. Reserve — economically mineable under defined conditions. Auctioned — rights awarded. Under development — approvals or construction underway. Producing — commercial output confirmed. Proposed — policy or company announcement only.
Sources & further reading
Every dated entry above was checked against these references. Last reviewed 28 August 2026.
- PIB - Cabinet approves National Critical Mineral Mission
- PMO - Cabinet approves Rs 7,280 crore sintered rare earth permanent magnet scheme
- PMO - Cabinet approves Rs 1,500 crore critical mineral recycling incentive scheme
- PIB - India's Rare Earth Strategy: Manufacturing and Corridors
- IEA - National Critical Mineral Mission policy profile
- PRS India - The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026
- Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) - official portal
- Ministry of Mines, Government of India