India has over 8.5 MT rare earth reserves: Minister Jitendra
image for illustrative purpose
New Delhi: India holds rare earth oxide resources of approximately 8.52 million tonnes, but remains dependent on imports for rare earth magnets and related products due to low-grade domestic deposits, regulatory constraints and a limited processing industry, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, said the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research has identified 7.23 million tonnes of total rare earth oxide equivalent contained in monazite deposits across Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
An additional 1.29 million tonnes of rare earth resources have been identified in hard rock terrains in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Despite these reserves, India's dependence on imported rare earth magnets persists on account of three structural constraints: domestic ore grades are significantly low at 0.056-0.058 per cent and are tied to radioactivity, making extraction complex and expensive; mineable reserves are limited due to coastal regulation zone rules, forest cover, and mangrove restrictions; and the country lacks a midstream rare earth value chain for manufacturing metals, alloys, and magnets from refined oxides.
