Future industries will be highly mineral intensive, says Vedanta chairman
Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal has exhorted setting up a policy mechanism that promotes development of mines at scale which will also help India cut down its dependence on imports.
“The technologies of the future, in EVs, batteries, solar power, wind energy etc. are highly mineral intensive. They need large quantities of lithium, cobalt, rare earths, copper and other minerals. India is 100% import dependent for some of these minerals and more than 50% dependent for others. This is a big risk,” Agarwal said in a recent tweet.
“Despite our superior geology, countries like China and Saudi Arabia are taking the lead through very liberal policies to attract investment and become a major player in these new age minerals,” he pointed out.
Agarwal also wants participation of young entrepreneurs in the mining sector, particularly metals that are key to emerging technologies.
Stressing on the need to reduce the nation’s dependence on mineral imports, he further said, “In India, the key is to enable young entrepreneurs to undertake exploration and allow them to sell their discoveries to large mining companies, who will develop these discoveries to production.”
Pointing out that liberalising and supporting exploration could be a game changer for startups, he said that this will help India to be amongst top three economies in the world.
“Time is of essence,” he warned in a Vedanta release on 2 Aug 2023 following the tweet.
Earlier this year, The Geological Survey of India identified a potential deposit of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium in Jammu and Kashmir, the first anywhere in India.
Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading natural resources companies spanning across India, South Africa, Namibia, Liberia, UAE, Korea, Taiwan and Japan with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, Nickel, Aluminium, Power & Glass Substrate and foraying into semiconductors and display glass. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation building. Fiinews.com
