India’s Mines Secretary V.L. Kantha Rao said on Thursday that Indian mining companies are exploring possible investments in Zambia, Australia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
India is especially hoping to import less lithium by developing its own mines, and refine more of the lithium it brings in.
“The Australian government is working with KABIL,” Rao said at a press conference on Thursday.
KABIL is Khanji Bidesh India Limited, a joint venture between three Indian government enterprises founded to ensure a steady supply of critical minerals for Indian industries.
Rao said “other countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and a few others” might also grant “exploration and mining” rights to Indian companies hungry for copper, nickel, cobalt, and rare earths in addition to lithium – the indispensable mineral for green energy and battery manufacturing.
“The Zambian Government has recently agreed to give India a greenfield area of 9,000 square km for carrying out exploration of cobalt and copper,” Rao said. “We will take two to three years in doing this exploration and we hope that after exploration we will be able to get the mining rights also.”
“This is a government-to-government arrangement and work will start in a month. The team is ready and will head for Africa soon,” he said.
Zambia is currently the world’s seventh-largest producer of copper. Copper exports furnish about 70 percent of Zambia’s national income.
Another Indian mining minister, G. Kishan Reddy, said geological surveys have revealed some lithium blocks that might be worth developing in Chhattisgarh and the Jammu-Kashmir region.
“The clarity on this exploration will come by the end of April and May and after that we would go on auction,” said Reddy.
Jammu and Kashmir could have almost 6 million metric tons of lithium, which was a very exciting discovery when it was announced – but so far, two attempts to auction off the mining rights have received no bids.
One problem is that minerals analysts have questioned the purity of the lithium deposits. Another is that the lithium is mixed with clay, which would make it difficult and expensive to mine the lithium. A third is that Jammu-Kashmir is violently unstable, with constant skirmishes between Indian security forces and Muslim militants. Some of those militant groups have explicitly threatened to escalate terrorist violence if Indian companies attempt to extract the lithium.
In November 2023, India forged a “strategic partnership” with Bolivia to develop lithium deposits in that country. In January 2024, KABIL signed a $24 million lithium exploration pact with a state-run enterprise in Argentina. India is also in talks with Chile for lithium.
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