Mines Secretary Piyush Goyal has said that he expects India to become a regional recycling hub for critical minerals, describing work with the private sector for recovery and recycling as a low-hanging fruit. The Ministry of Mines recently held discussions with the Ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs; Environment and Forests; Road Transport and Highways; and Electronics and Information Technology on ways to work out measures to gather urban waste as well as utilise critical minerals that are presently not being extracted from it.
The Mines Ministry has also urged the Ministry of Environment and Forests again to add some of the critical minerals into the ambit of the e-waste rules, for which recycling capacity is available.
Stating that a multi-pronged strategy for critical minerals involves fast-tracking exploration via auction of blocks along with active discussions with other countries for mineral blocks for exploration at a reasonable price, such as the existing lithium blocks in Argentina, he said that availability of critical minerals is not a challenge due to the existence of long-term offtake agreements at reasonable prices.
However, he termed the development of a processing value chain as the main concern, without which sourcing of critical minerals will not help. For this, the government has held discussions with stakeholders and formulated an action plan to develop a resilient value chain.
Stating that the Geological Survey of India (GSI) will primarily focus on critical minerals and rely more on the private sector for surface minerals, he said that the Ministry of Mines held discussions with the Department of Atomic Energy to fast-track the harnessing of India’s reserves of sand minerals, which include thorium.
For lithium-ion battery parts, he said that a private sector plant is already coming up by mid-2026, while further capacity will be expanded by 2030 to utilise the entire lithium battery waste.
For recycling, on September 3, 2025, the Union Cabinet approved a scheme worth ₹1,500 crore, which was operationalised in less than a month.
The Secretary said that the scheme guidelines were launched on October 2, 2025, and have received a good response during the ongoing six-month application window. The government is hoping to complete the application process by April 2026, with large participation from the private sector.
