India Studies Lithium Projects

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India is seeking to change laws to allow private miners to extract lithium, the key ingredient for batteries used for electric vehicles and energy storage.

According to the Indian government's estimates, in order to meet lithium-ion battery demand, India will need a minimum of 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of lithium-ion cells by 2023, about 60 GWh by 2025 and 120 GWh by 2030. Out of this, almost 58 GWh will be for the electric vehicles segment alone.

At present, India imports almost 70% of its lithium-ion battery components from China and Hong Kong to be assembled into batteries, or it imports preassembled battery packs. By 2030, just to serve the domestic demand, India needs to invest about US$10 billion to boost cell manufacturing and raw material refining.

India's Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, is carrying out exploration for lithium in parts of the Mandya and Yadgir districts of Karnataka. Preliminary surveys by AMD have shown the presence of lithium resources of 1,600 tonnes in the areas.

The Ministry of Mines' Geological Survey of India is studying 20 potential lithium and associated projects in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Rajasthan.

It remains to be seen whether India will develop its own lithium-mining projects.

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