China is a dominant supplier of critical minerals – that primarily in categories like ore, waste, scrap and unwrougt (raw), metallic or finished product forms – to India. Of the 24-odd minerals identified by the Mines Ministry, China is among the top three in at least 15 of these. Incidentally, India continues to be the net importer in most of these minerals.
The critical minerals where China is the largest supplier, as of FY24, include cobalt – commercial oxides, moblybdenum – unwrought ones and bars, nickel – oxide and in raw form, potash & glauconite, rare earth elements (REE), tantalum, titanium and tungsten. China’s share across these minerals varies between 99 per cent (for nitrates of potassium) and 72 per cent (for both REE and raw titanium supplies). Volume-wise supplies stood at 1,471 tonnes for nitrates of potassium to around 25 tonnes for commercial cobalt oxide.
In artificial graphite, China is the largest supplier having a 66 per cent market share. Artificial graphite includes colloidal (where particles remain evenly dispersed) or semi colloidal ones, preparations based on graphite or other carbon form of pastes, blocks, among others. Around 67,088 tonnes were imported last fiscal, as per a written response the Union Mines Minister, G Kishan Reddy, in the Lok Sabha.
The east Asian nation is also amongst the top three for supplies of other critical minerals that include lithium (oxide and hydroxide) – where it is at number three after Belgium and Russia.
It is the second largest supplier of beryllium – salts of oxometallic or peroxometallic acids, cadmium, natural graphite, tellurium and rhenium. The share of supplies varies between 39 per cent (natural graphite) and 6 per cent (beryllium salts).
Other Countries
The other minerals where India continue to be import dependent, but not on China, include gallium and indium– largest supplier being USA accounting for 100 per cent of the supplies in both these minerals, niobium – dependent mostly on Germany and Russia, selenium – Japan being the largest supplier, tin – mostly from Indonesia, platinum group of elements – coming from the UK and UAE, phosphorous – mostly from Jordan, vanadium – coming in from Germany for ores and concentrates and from Mexico for oxides and hydroxides, and zirconium – coming in from Indonesia (for ores) and France (unwrought & powders).
There are other minerals like cobalt where certain big category supplies – like hydroxides & oxides are dominated by Belgium, natural graphite – dominated by Madagascar, lithium carbonates where Ireland has the major market share. In molybdenum, Chile is key supplier for ores and concentrates while the US is the largest for oxides and hydroxides.
In select cases, such as nickel different countries dominate supplies across specific categories. For instance, Australia, Japan, Belgium and Saudi Arabia are key suppliers in specific segments like nickel oxides & hydroxides, chlorides and sulphates of the mineral and scrap.
Metals like nickle find use in stainless steel, batteries, food processing, renewable energy, whereas molybdenum is used as an alloying agent, pigment and dyes, lubricative agent, etc. Cobalt, lithium and graphite finds usage in batteries, among others.
Net Importer
According to Minister Reddy, India is a net importer in most of the critical minerals “on account of their nil or limited reserve / production in the country”.
The net import bill for FY24, as per the Lok Sabha document is approximately ₹30,000 crore with phosphorous net imports being the highest at ₹12,648 crore. The REE net import is the only one to have a negative balance of ₹247 crore, indicating the possibility of India being a net exporter of the same.
In comparison, India’s net import bill for critical minerals stood at over ₹42,000 crore with phosphorous being the highest at ₹15,123 crore.
