• NITI Aayog is preparing policy recommendations to recover critical minerals from mine overburden, tailings, and other mining waste.
• A technical committee has been formed to assess the commercial potential of extracting critical minerals from mining waste.
• The committee is evaluating aspects such as royalty structures, incentives, and commercial viability before submitting recommendations to the government.
• Consultations have been held with major companies including Coal India, Singareni Collieries, Jindal Steel, and the Adani Group.
• NITI Aayog highlighted NLC India's work on extracting rare earth elements from fly ash as an example of the potential in industrial waste recovery.
• A separate committee is also working on urban mining, focusing on recovering critical minerals from electronic waste and spent batteries.
• The urban mining study covers the entire value chain, including collection, transportation, processing, recovery costs, and revenue potential.
• Based on the findings, NITI Aayog will prepare an action plan for the Ministry of Mines, identifying areas where policy support and incentives are needed.
• The think tank believes recycling and recovery from secondary sources will be crucial while India's domestic critical mineral production is still developing.
• Many auctioned critical mineral blocks remain in the early exploration stage, meaning commercial mining will take time.
• India is also exploring overseas critical mineral opportunities in countries such as Australia, Argentina, and the United States.
• The Ministry of Mines is examining policy options to address restrictions imposed by some resource-rich countries that require local value addition before exporting minerals.