India has discovered lithium-inferred resources to the tune of 5.9 million tonnes in the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mines are at the preliminary exploration stage (also called G3). Lithium is one of the key elements used for making EV batteries and other energy storage products.
According to a statement, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) report on lithium resources, along with 15 other resource-bearing geological reports (that are in general exploration and preliminary exploration stages) and 35 geological memoranda, were handed over to respective State governments during the 62nd Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) meeting.
Out of these 51 mineral blocks, 5 pertain to gold, and the other blocks pertain to commodities like potash, molybdenum, and base metals, among others, that are spread across 11 States, namely, Jammu & Kashmir (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
The blocks were prepared based on the work carried out by GSI from field seasons 2018-19 to date.
Apart from these, 17 reports of coal and lignite with a total resource of 7897 million tonnes were also handed over to the Ministry of Coal, the Ministry of Mines statement said.
For FY24, the GSI is taking up 966 programmes comprising 318 mineral exploration projects, including 12 marine mineral investigation projects.
“A major thrust has been given to the exploration of strategic, critical, and fertilizer minerals. A total of 115 projects on strategic and critical minerals, including 16 projects on fertilizer minerals, have been formulated,” the statement said.
In addition, 55 programmes on geo-informatics, 140 programmes on fundamental and multidisciplinary geosciences, and 155 programmes for training and institutional capacity building have been taken up.
During his address, Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, and Chairman CGPB, congratulated GSI for the auction of 500 blocks by submitting 287 geological memoranda and 195 G2 and G3 reports to the state government since 2015. He asserted that GSI should carry forward this momentum and continue the field programmes, the statement added.