Inputs for Stakeholder consultations for Strengthening India’s Critical Mineral Ecosystem

Copy of Email send by our company Managing Partner Mr.S.Vaikundarajan e-mail to Federation of Indian Placer Mineral Industries, New Delhi for our members information. 

**********

Dear Sir

Sub:  Inputs for Stakeholder consultations for Strengthening India’s Critical Mineral Ecosystem

With reference your email  dated August 11,2026 on the above subject , we submit  herewith of inputs and suggestions for discussions during stakeholder consultation .

 

1.      India hosts large resources ( 35% of global resources ) of heavy mineral placer deposits along the coastal stretches of Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Orissa and Kerala. These beach placers contain a multi-mineral suite of high-value minerals comprising – Titanium rich minerals ( ilmenite, rutile  and leucoxene ) , Zircon, Garnet, Sillimanite and REE rich Monazite which occur together and their individual contents vary from deposit to deposit. These high-value minerals and their derivatives find diverse applications in day-to-day use as well as strategic and high-tech applications.

 

2.       In spite of the vast resources ,  the Beach Sand minerals (BSM) remain grossly underutilised, with the production-to-reserve ratio (PRR) being a meagre 0.0018 % when compared to the global PRR of 0.01%. Consequently, India has to rely on imports of minerals and derivative products to meet domestic demand and faces supply chain uncertainties due to global economic and geopolitical challenges.

 

In this scenario, beach sand minerals containing strategic and critical Ti minerals ( ilmenite and rutile ) , Zircon and REE’s rich monazite present substantial opportunities for mining and downstream value addition to boost domestic production, ensuring supply chain security, stimulating socio-economic development and making India self-reliant.

 

3.      To accelerate India’s capability to implement and operationalise the                                         “Mine to Magnet “ value chain to meet the domestic critical mineral requirements, India should focus on its largely untapped beach sand mineral resources along its coastline. These beach sand deposits contain Titanium rich minerals Ilmenite and Rutile, Zircon which are classified as critical and strategic minerals under Part D of the MMRD act. Further, Monazite is rich in Rare Earth elements , like Cerium, Lanthanum, Neodymium, Praeseodymium, and other valuable REE’s which are used in manufacture of magnets widely used in Automotive , Aerospace , Defence and Military and High tech applications.

 

 In order to accelerate India’s production of critical minerals, the following action plan is suggested

 

i.                     Reopen the BSM sector to private participation under a strictly regulated framework .

 

ii.                   Allow private sector participation  to mine all BSM minerals, with monazite handed over to the government or processed in public-private partnerships.

 

iii.                 Such an initiative will bring in capital investment  and technology  to realise the full value chain and

a.      Create employment  in the industrially backward coastal regions

b.      Guarantee  uninterrupted supply of ilmenite  to TiO₂ (Titanium dioxide) based industries—the white pigment manufacturing (used in paints, plastics, etc.)  and reduce import dependence on Chinese supply       

c.       Save foreign exchange by reducing  TiO₂ pigment imports and achieve  self -reliance

d.      Promote value addition through synthetic rutile, titanium slag, and other downstream products like rare earth magnet manufacturing, etc

e.      Enable  India achieve self-sufficiency in rare earths production and TiO2 pigment production  and eventually become a global exporter.

 

            India must act before the technological advancements develop substitute materials

            whereby the current mineral resources  would lose relevance and remain as a buried

            treasure.

 

 

4.      Prior to 2016 ,  several private mining leases operated in Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. All these private mining companies after recovering their permitted material garnet, ilmenite, zircon and rutile, were also generating Monazite ( REE ) rich Tailings.  Atomic Energy Regulatory Board imposed a condition that, when the monazite percentage is less than 2% in these tailings, it had to be blended with the silica sand and backfilled in the mined out area.  However,  if the monazite percentage was  more than 5%, the private lessees were advised to store these tailings in a separate place after recovering other minerals. Accordingly, during the course of their operations ,some of the private mining lessees in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh have accumulated  several lakh  metric tonnes  of such tailings  which contain critical minerals and Rare Earths minerals.  

 

These accumulated tailings are a readily available REE-rich resource and can be an immediate solution for quick extraction and processing to produce the much needed critical and REE minerals for domestic requirements.  The Government may prescribe necessary conditions for recovery of valuable mineral and dispose of the same within India to the end-users or the value added producers as raw material.  This will not only provide immediate raw material for critical mineral and REE production in India , but will also be a significant initiative from the stand point of  mineral conservation and maximum utilisation of our country’s natural resources.

 

Mineral Exploration is a capital-intensive, time-consuming, high-risk activity being fraught with uncertainties associated with new mineral discoveries.   While this is an essential activity and must be pursued, it does not present an immediate solution to the supply shortages of critical minerals and REE for domestic production. Therefore, a prudent and balanced approach would be to operationalise the critical minerals and REE available in these  tailings immediately while parallelly pursuing exploration for new mineral discoveries for future production and raw material security.

 

 

5.      Regulatory and clearance delays

 

Mining projects often face delays due to environmental, forest and land related approvals. The Government should ensure speedy clearances for smooth implementation of the projects.

 

 

6.      Infrastructure  requirements in project areas

 

Many deposits are located in remote areas with weak logistics , power and water infrastructure  which require significant capital expenditure for development and therefore adversely impact project viability. Government must facilitate and ensure required support for infrastructural development so that the burden of infrastructure development does not fall on the private investor.

 

 

7.      Develop R &D ecosystem for technological know-how.

 

India’s existing mineral processing technologies still need further development for processing the critical minerals.  Further, India’s R &D ecosystem for processing of critical minerals is still at a nascent stage and has limited ability to support  commercial scale production. Hence a well-coordinated and focused collaboration between academic and industrial research institutions is needed  for the development of required technology and  supported by an R& D ecosystem  to develop cost-effective solutions for domestic critical minerals production

 

 

Thanking You

 

 

Yours Truly

 S.Vaikundarajan