{"id":37650,"date":"2023-10-12T11:29:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T05:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37650"},"modified":"2025-04-23T00:19:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T18:49:37","slug":"critical-minerals-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/critical-minerals-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategically Significant or Critical Minerals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What are Critical Minerals?<\/li>\n<li>Identification of 30 Critical Minerals by the Indian Govt<\/li>\n<li>Lower Royalty Rates for Strategic Minerals<\/li>\n<li>Significance of Lower Royalty Rates for Strategic Minerals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre has approved an amendment to a key law in order to specify competitive royalty rates for the mining of three strategically significant minerals &#8211;<strong> lithium, niobium, and rare earth elements (REEs)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The decision comes after the government removed 6 minerals from the list of \u2018specified\u2019 atomic minerals, which could set the stage for participation of the private sector through the auctioning concessions for these minerals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are Critical Minerals?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A mineral is critical<\/strong> when the risk of supply shortage and associated impact on the economy is (relatively) higher than other raw materials.<\/li>\n<li>These minerals are <strong>essential for economic development and national security<\/strong>, and their lack of availability\/ the concentration of extraction\/ processing in a few geographical locations could potentially lead to<strong> supply chain vulnerabilities<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These (such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, titanium, and rare earth elements) are essential for the advancement of many sectors, including <strong>hightech electronics, telecommunications, transport, and defence.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It forms part of multiple strategic value chains<\/strong>, including &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Clean technologies<\/strong> initiatives such as zero-emission vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Information and communication technologies<\/strong>, including semiconductors; and<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced manufacturing inputs and materials<\/strong> such as defence applications, permanent magnets, ceramics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Identification of 30 Critical Minerals by the Indian Govt<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The identification of these minerals was done on the basis of a report on critical minerals prepared by an expert team constituted by the<strong> Ministry of Mines<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The ministry <strong>will revisit the list periodically.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The panel decided to have a <strong>3-stage assessment<\/strong> to arrive at a list of critical minerals.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In the first stage<\/strong>, the panel looked at the strategies of various countries such as Australia, USA, Canada, UK, Japan and South Korea, and identified a total of 69 elements\/ minerals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the second stage<\/strong>, an inter-ministerial consultation was carried out with different ministries to identify minerals critical to their sectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The third stage <\/strong>assessment was to derive an empirical formula for evaluating minerals criticality, taking cognizance of the EU methodology that considers two major factors &#8211; <strong>economic importance and supply risk.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Based on this process,<strong> a total of 30 minerals <\/strong>were found to be most critical for India, out of which two are critical as fertiliser minerals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Lower Royalty Rates for Strategic Minerals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The specification of new royalty rates by amending the Second Schedule of<strong> the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957<\/strong>, effectively aligns India\u2019s royalty rates with global benchmarks.\n<ul>\n<li>The MMDR Act 1957 currently specifies a royalty rate of 12% of the average sale price (ASP) for minerals that are not specifically listed in that Schedule.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>After the Cabinet\u2019s decision, lithium mining <strong>will attract a royalty of 3%<\/strong> based on the London Metal Exchange price.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Niobium too<\/strong>, will be subject to 3% royalty calculated on the ASP, in case of both primary and secondary sources.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Niobium is a silvery metal <\/strong>with a layer of oxide on its surface, which makes it resistant to corrosion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It is used in alloys,<\/strong> including stainless steel, to improve their strength, particularly at low temperatures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alloys containing niobium are used in jet engines<\/strong>, beams and girders for buildings, and oil and gas pipelines.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Given its superconducting properties<\/strong>, it is also used in magnets for particle accelerators and MRI scanners.<\/li>\n<li>The main source of this element is the mineral columbite, which is found in countries such as<strong> Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Nigeria.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>REEs will have a royalty of 1%<\/strong> based on the ASP of the Rare Earth Oxide (the ore in which the REE is most commonly found).<\/li>\n<li>The Ministry of Mines has laid down <strong>the way to calculate the ASP of these minerals<\/strong>, on the basis of which the bid parameters will be determined.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Significance of Lower Royalty Rates for Strategic Minerals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It will pave the way for commercial exploitation<\/strong> of these minerals through auctions, which can be conducted by the Centre or states.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Domestic mining is sought to be encouraged<\/strong> with the aim of lowering imports, and setting up related end-use industries such as electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage solutions.<\/li>\n<li>The Cabinet decision is also expected to <strong>increase employment in the mining sector.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These critical minerals are also seen as an important prerequisite for India to meet its commitment to energy transition, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B7JoTpSfrBI\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B7JoTpSfrBI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1) What is the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act?<\/h3>\n<p>The MMRD Act (1957) forms the basic framework of mining regulation in India. It is applicable to all minerals except minor minerals and atomic minerals.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2) What was the \u2018Khanan Prahari\u2019 app launched?<\/h3>\n<p>The government has launched a mobile app namely \u2018Khanan Prahari\u2019 for reporting unauthorised coal mining activities so that monitoring and taking suitable action on it can be done by concerned Law and Order enforcing authority.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/Industry\/cabinet-approves-royalty-rates-for-lithium-two-other-strategic-minerals\/article67407825.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Cabinet approves royalty rates for lithium, two other strategic minerals<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/chinmaya-gharekhan-explains-india-and-the-palestinians-over-the-years-8978911\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A mineral is critical when the risk of supply shortage and associated impact on the economy is (relatively) higher than other raw materials,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}