Friday’s announcement about discovery of lithium in Kashmir by the Geological Survey of India, has given basis for hoping for more, especially because the exercise of exploration for lithium began in right earnest only five years ago. 

The GSI has “inferred” that the deposits in Kashmir could hold a whopping 5.9 million tonnes of lithium, which if proven would make India a large lithium producing country. 

According to statements made by the Ministry of Mines in the Parliament, the GSI has carried out 19 projects in the last five years on “lithium and associated elements” in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Rajasthan. Further, Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Ltd, a central public sector enterprise, has undertaken exploration for lithium in Ladakh. The department of atomic energy has carried out exploration for lithium in parts of Karnataka and has inferred 1,600 tonnes of the metal in the Mandya district. 

As per the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC), a basic, reconnaissance survey is called ‘G4’; the next step is ‘preliminary exploration’, which is called G3. Then comes general exploration, or G2.  

Going by this, three of the 19 exploratory projects taken up by the GSI have graduated from G4 to G3, and one to G2. These are in the Sirohi district (Sibagaon block) and Nagaur districts (Mohangarh block) of Rajasthan and Reasi district of J&K. It is the Reasi district find that is in the news now. The next could well be the two G3s in Rajasthan. The Rewat Hill block, also of Nagaur district in Rajasthan, is the one that has graduated to G2. 

Considering that exploration for lithium is still young in India and given that there have been quite a number of G4 and G3 finds, it is not out of place to dream about more major lithium discoveries in India. 

New IMFL 

Many know the acronym ‘IMFL’ to mean ‘India-made foreign liquor’, but it is possible to give it another expansion—as ‘India-mined foreign lithium’, because India is looking for the metal abroad too. 

“Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL), a Joint Venture of three CPSEs under Ministry of Mines, has signed a Non-Binding Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] with three State-owned organisations of Argentina, for the purpose of information sharing with respect to prospective mineral acreages of lithium,” the Minister of Mines, Prahlad Joshi, told the Lok Sabha on July 25, 2022.  

Further, a government-to-government MoU has been signed between the Indian government and the Australian government for co-operation in the field of mining and processing of critical and strategic minerals such as lithium. KABIL has signed a detailed MoU with Critical Minerals Facilitation Office [CMFO], Department of Industry, Science and Resources [DISER], Australia for identifying lithium and cobalt assets for joint investment decisions. 

Industry excited 

The Indian Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has said it is “excited” to learn about the recent lithium reserves (in Kashmir). This will help in long term energy security, as India is looking to develop 100-plus GWhr of li-ion battery manufacture by 2030, Dr Rahul Walawalkar, President, IESA, told businessline on Saturday. 

While averring that the ‘find’ would take many years to come to commercialisation, Walawalkar observed that “the main advantage of the find is that the nay sayers, who claim that India needs to skip lithium-ion battery manufacture because we do not have lithium, will hopefully now have their answer.”