Critical Mineral Recovery Crucial, Needs Comprehensive Plan

India's Green Recovery Roadmap for Strategic Minerals from Waste: A Strategic Strategy

India's growing focus on green energy technologies, electric vehicles (EVs), and battery manufacturing has brought attention to the strategic significance of strategic minerals in fueling these sectors. While the demand for these minerals accelerates, driven by international drive towards greener energy, India stands with a necessity to procure a safe supply of these materials pivotal in the trend. The recent Ficvi and Deloitte report highlights how recycling of these minerals from the waste resulting from mining can be one of the solutions to the supply question of the country.

These technology majors like nickel, cobalt, copper, gallium, and titanium constitute these technologies such as solar panels, wind farms, EVs, and energy storage facilities. The minerals also have crucial functions in defense manufacturing, i.e., missiles, aircraft, and vessels. However, the extraction and processing have huge challenges that vary from exploration bottlenecks to extended mine operations. The sector also has limitations in responding to increasing demand, and therefore more innovative strategies, i.e., recovery of minerals from waste, are needed.

India's policy on mineral resource security is changing step by step, but it does have a few challenges that need to be worked upon, according to the Ficci-Deloitte report. Among the largest of them is the intensity of search for new mineral deposits, which keeps the country confined to locating new sources. Beyond that, lengthy lead times in mining procedures and mineral process suboptimacy cause stringent constraints. Because of these challenges, also becoming a flourishing option for filling the huge gap is recovery of valuable minerals from the residues of the processing.

India generates humongous amounts of mining wastes like fly ash, red mud, mine overburden, mine tailings, and metal slag. These have been conventionally utilized as waste, but more and more and under research are attempts to recover valuable minerals from such by-products. Fly ash, for instance, is a coal-burning residue, whereas red mud is a by-product of bauxite refining. Slag and mine tailings are by-products of metal extraction processes such as copper, zinc, and lead.

The discarded wastes bearing minerals now present an untapped potential for recovering the major minerals. Previously, the focus has been on finding new mineral deposits through exploration. Now, with extraction being economically not viable and problematic, the other option of using mine waste as a secondary source has come to the forefront. The research uncovers that technological advancements and developments in the extraction methods can make India capable of extracting valuable minerals from such inputs, thus ushering in resource efficiency and sustainability.

The United States, Canada, and Australia already began tapping the potential of waste dumps and mine tailings to recover valuable minerals. Governmental support has helped the research institutions along with industries in these nations in the development of new mineral recovery technologies. These technologies are grounded on hydrometallurgical and bio-leaching technologies that can efficiently recover valuable minerals from waste minerals without inflicting much damage on the environment.

There are a few research centers in India that are collaborating, in addition to mining companies, towards the development of such technology to extract critical minerals from mining waste. The country is also recognizing more and more the importance of secondary resources and how they can contribute to lowering the country's dependence on mineral imports.

The recycling of the major minerals from waste is complementary to India's general vision towards green mining and efficient use of resources. India's National Mineral Policy envisions zero-waste mining as a solution to minimize the environmental impact of mining. By means of recycling minerals from waste, India is making the nation's mining sector more sustainable and limiting its dependency on foreign minerals. This is also in accordance with national environmental stewardship and responsibility and sustainable land use, whereby the mining activities shall not come at the cost of biodiversity or forest cover.

The second important benefit of the recovery of minerals from the mining tailings is that it can reduce the environmental effects of mining. The recovery of important minerals from waste streams would reduce the need for new mine openings, which are hugely land-destroying, water-consuming, and polluting activities. Secondly, waste reduction and material recovery are in line with the circular economy philosophy of reusing and recycling material instead of wasting it.

Conclusion:India's aspiration to become a global clean energy and net-zero emissions leader requires the development of a sustainable system for recovering critical minerals. With the country transitioning to its Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contribution, efficient recovery of minerals from waste will be key to meeting the targets. By establishing a robust recovery base for major minerals, India shall be able to supply clean technologies for energy on a sustainable as well as independent supply chain and contribute to sustainability at the international level. India can utilize extraction of strategic minerals from mine residue and waste as a golden opportunity. Through investment in research and development, capacity development, and linkages with the supply chain, it is possible to limit its dependence on imports and augment its supply base of strategic minerals. India can become a global leader in sustainable mining technology and management of mineral resources through policy re-engineering and collaboration between industries.

Source: Ficci-Deloitte Report