India Prepares New Policy to Store Key Minerals and Cut Import Reliance

The central government plans to finalise a new policy for storing critical minerals within a month to deal with supply chain problems and lower import dependence.

What Happened

Keshav Chandra, who is the Secretary of the Ministry of Mines, shared this plan at the India Mines and Minerals Conclave 2026. This event was organised by the industry group ASSOCHAM. A stockpile is a strategic reserve kept to make sure the supply of key minerals does not stop. Vital minerals like copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements are needed to build clean energy technologies, wind turbines, power networks, electric vehicles and batteries.

Challenges

India currently has very little processing capacity for these materials and relies completely on imports for most of them. At the same time, the government vehicle Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, known as KABIL, has faced trouble growing its footprint abroad. Proposed investments in places like Australia, Vietnam, Mali and Chile have either stalled or failed. The only progress so far is in Argentina, where KABIL bought five lithium brine blocks in Catamarca province. Meanwhile, China controls 90 percent of global mineral processing and often uses this power during trade tensions.

Government Plans

To protect the country, the National Critical Minerals Mission proposed a National Critical Mineral Stockpile Programme. The government has set aside Rs 500 crore for this mission over seven years, running from the 2024-25 period up to 2030-31. This reserve will hold at least five critical minerals. The government also wants to build domestic processing plants in four states. Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh will look at rare earth processing, Odisha will focus on nickel, and Maharashtra will work on lithium. Chandra noted that other countries will not share their processing technology, so India must build its own local technology or find it where available. Nine Centers of Excellence have been picked for this work, and some are making good progress.

Context

Stockpiling vital raw materials is a common defense strategy used by major economies to protect domestic industries from sudden trade blocks or global shortages. Because modern green technologies require specific elements that are hard to mine and refine locally, building domestic processing hubs helps secure a nation's long-term industrial independence.