India to invest in exploration of Lithium and Cobalt mines in Australia

Category
Geography
Published
5th Apr, 2022

Context

India's KABIL, a mining joint venture between state-run firms National Aluminium Co, Hindustan Copper Ltd and Mineral Exploration Corp Ltd, has signed a preliminary agreement with Australia's Critical Minerals Facilitation Office (CMFO).

The objective is to explore lithium and cobalt mines in Australia.

About

India has committed to jointly invest $6 million with the Australian government to explore lithium and cobalt mines in Australia over the next six months.
India is offering $2.4 billion of incentives for companies to build battery cells locally for electric vehicles.
The agreement also provides for inclusion of any other Indian state-run firm as an investment partner, and envisages the due diligence process will be completed and further investment decisions taken over the next six months.

KABIL

The Mines Ministry has created a joint venture (JV) company — Khanij Bidesh India (KABIL) — with participating interest from National Aluminium Company (NALCO), Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Mineral Exploration Corporation (MECL).
The equity participation is 40:30:30, respectively.

About Cobalt

Cobalt is an essential trace element, and forms part of the active site of vitamin B12.
Cobalt is a hard, brittle metal.
It is similar in appearance to iron and nickel. Cobalt has a magnetic permeability around 2/3 that of iron.
Cobalt is found as a mixture of two allotropes over a wide temperature range.

Cobalt in India

Occurrences of cobalt are reported from Singhbhum district, Jharkhand; Kendujhar and Jajpur districts, Odisha; Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan; Tuensang district, Nagaland; and Jhabua and Hoshangabad districts, Madhya Pradesh.

About Lithium:

Lithium is a chemical element with symbol Li and atomic number 3.
It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal.
Under standard conditions, it is the lightest metal and the lightest solid element.
Lithium is highly reactive and flammable, and is stored in mineral oil.
It never occurs freely in nature, but only in (usually ionic) compounds, such as pegmatitic minerals, which were once the main source of lithium.
Due to its solubility as an ion, it is present in ocean water and is commonly obtained from brines.
Lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.
Lithium is a key component used in Electric Vehicle batteries. And India, through its ? 18,100- crore PLI scheme is o?ering incentives for companies to build battery cells locally.
China and Hong Kong are the biggest lithium battery suppliers to India.

Lithium Triangle:

Lithium Triangle is an intersection of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, known for high quality salt flats.
Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, Salar de Atacama in Chile and Salar de Arizaro in Argentina contains over 45%of known global lithium reserves.
Beneath Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat lies the world’s greatest lithium deposits.
Bolivia, one of South America’s poorest countries, envisions development by harvesting lithium on an industrial scale from underground saltwater brines.
It can be mined from rock or processed from brine.
Lithium dissolved in underground saline aquifers called “brine”, pumped to surface by wells and then allowed to evaporate in vast knee-deep ponds.