CEO and billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla and Japan’s Mitsubishi are two prominent international players that are looking forward to bid in for India’s lithium reserves, which will be auctioned by the end of this year, according to sources.
Sources add that other than the foreign players, domestic EV maker Ola Electric has also sparked interest to participate in the auction of lithium.
A non-ferrous metal, Lithium is categorized as an important resource and India until now is fully dependent on import to meet its lithium requirements. Lithium is is one of the key constituents in EV batteries.
This year, in February, the Central government announced that 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves were found in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This was the first time that any lithium reserve was found in India.
In the beginning of this month, the central government announced its plans to auction the newly found lithium reserves.
Secretary of Ministry of Mines, Vivek Bharadwaj said, “Auction of lithium reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi will be started by December.” Speaking at an industrial event on May 2, the secretary said the Centre wrote to the administrators of Jammu and Kashmir for the transaction advisor for the lithium auction.
“We have completed the consultation process with stakeholders on the amendment of the offshore Mining Act. Hopefully, we will soon bring it in the parliament for discussion,” Bharadwaj said.
Nitin Gadkari, Union Road Transport Minister, recently said that the newly discovered reserve of lithium in the valley will set off India’s EV journey and can soon make the country world’s number-one automobile manufacturer in the electric vehicle space.
After Jammu and Kashmir, lithium reseres have also been found in the western state of Rajasthan, according to the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
After Jammu and Kashmir, lithium reserves were discovered in Rajasthan. This amount of lithium can meet 80 per cent of India’s demand. Lithium is a significant raw material for the production of EV batteries. The finding is an asset for India’s EV industry. Decoding the importance of lithium discoveries, Nikunj Dalmia and Anisha Jain, and discuss whether more private players dive into the battery manufacturing space.
With the recent lithium discoveries in India, the country has the second largest reserve of lithium in the world. Talking about the implications of the development, ET NOW’s Managing Editor Nikunj Dalmia said lithium is important because it is a critical raw material for EV battery manufacturing. He said there is a reason why everyone is excited about the lithium reserves being found in the country as we were heavily dependent on imports to meet our lithium requirements for EV sector.
Particularly concerning the state of current geopolitical situation, India finding own lithium reserves is very important, he said.
The EV dream cannot be fulfilled without battery and the EV battery cannot be made without lithium, so if we remain dependent on other countries, that means somewhere we will remain hostage to geopolitical situation, he said.
The EV demand in India is prominent and moving ahead and the early success story is Tata Motors and others including Maruti Suzuki are also taking giant steps into EV space, according to hi,.
As far as the competition in the EV space s going ahead, Dalmia said the space is so extensive that it will have place for everyone. Incumbents will be there, disruptors will come with novel and unique technologies, he said adding that the key for EV players would be to get their model and methodologies correct .