Lele and Bhardwaj reported in 2014 that strategic materials are expected to support many key business sectors including general manufacturing, construction business and clean technologies and transport industry. Innovation in new materials development could also allow benefits in high-value-added products sector and processes and services sector. The authors expected that relevance of strategic materials could increase with the introduction of new materials essentially because most of them would be required as raw materials for new minerals.Currently, strategic materials exploration and expansion activities are at cross roads. There is an evolving milieu involving multiple stakeholders globally. States have begun to realize the need for strategic materials resource assessment and examining the nature of their dependency on imports. India-specific assessment carried out during the course of this study provided the following information:
• As a developing economy and with ongoing rapid industrialization,India’s need for minerals for multiple industrial sectors is expected to grow manifold. India’s need for strategic materials is also growing mainly owning to its investments in nuclear, aerospace and defense sectors which are strategic material intensive industries.
• In case of India, many of the strategic minerals identified and minerals belonging to higher risk bracket are also listed as strategic materials for various other countries. This indicates that presently there are multiple buyers for the same material globally, and this number is expected to grow further. India needs to factor in this proliferation in users while undertaking future planning. Also, there is a need to develop a dynamic mechanism to calculate national stock and mineral reserves of strategic minerals in the country which could be used to as an element for the calculation of projection for the future.
• The assessment carried out in this study indicates that for India cobalt,germanium, molybdenum and tungsten are the strategic minerals in the higher risk bracket. There is a significant amount of import dependence for procurement of these materials. Also, presently India is importing alloys and scrap from many countries as raw material.This is turn is increasing India’s import dependence significantly. It has been observed that India has substantial dependence on states like China and Africa in respect of imports of strategic minerals.Particularly, violence-prone states like Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) with a discredited political system is a cause of concern for India, and there always would be some uncertainty in regards to imports from such states. India’s political relationship with China, with an unscrupulous past and not so exultant present, and China’s opaque policies in the arena of mineral exports need to be factored in while ascertaining the ‘dependency’ factor.
• For India, issues related to export/import policies of strategic minerals should not be restricted as a job of the Commerce Ministry alone.Foreign policy decisions play an important role towards gaining access to relevant minerals and technologies. It is important for India to advance various useful bilateral and multilateral collaborations by keeping present and future requirements of strategic materials in mind. Particularly, there is a need to engage states like Brazil, Japan and the US not only from an import destination point of view but also for undertaking joint projects.
• In general, it has been observed that India’s policy of multiple sourcing has helped to avoid resource traps.
• Unfortunately, India is not able to get free access to exhume the mineral deposits within its own country owing to some domestic factors.
• Apart from the management of imports, it is also important for India to factor in various important domestic issues for undertaking mining planning. The issues are both political and environmental in nature.There are various pressure groups within the country which keep a strict watch on various activities which could damage the environment by conducting mining in an unscientific way. It is important for India to link such groups with the existing government network to monitor the environmental challenges arising from mining and take corrective measures. Besides, India’s major problem concerning mineral deposits is the problem of Naxalism.
[Note: A Naxalism group is any political organization that claims the legacy of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), founded in Calcutta in 1969. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is the largest existing political group in that lineage today in India]. It is not restricted to being a law and order problem and has various social dimensions wherewith careful, but firm handling is required.
• There is an interrelationship between the Naxalite conflict and India’s mineral production and mining policies. Table 9.1 lists the type of strategic minerals found in the Naxal-affected regions within India.
• A healthy solution to the problem of Naxalism could also lead to domestic increase in the production of the strategic minerals. India also needs to guard against illegal mining, and it is important for the state to overcome the political pressures and take appreciate corrective measures. All in all, finding solutions to specific internal problems could lead to an increase in the production of strategic materials and eventually reduce the dependence on imports.
• It is important to encourage research institutions for innovation of new minerals and modification of existing materials and also develop a mechanism to undertake improvements in existing mineral processing and extraction methods. There is a need to establish a dedicated facility for strategic mineral research including finding efficient methods for recycling.
• Rare Earth Element (REE) dependency of various nation-states on China has been one of the most hotly discussed subjects globally.Various states are looking for an alternative to decrease their over dependence on China. For India, this situation could be considered both as challenge and opportunity. India many not be as blessed as China in regards to natural deposits of REE. However, there is a possibility for India to make appropriate investments in this sector particularly by undertaking deep sea mining.
• As per the Government of India, Department of Science &Technology Ministry of Science & Technology Annual Report 2013,the government has promised support to both basic and applied research on Material, Mining and Mineral Engineering. Already 29 new research efforts have been initiated/identified for support, and another 39 are under evaluation. Such measures by the government are highly encouraging. It needs to be ensured that such efforts are sustained and monitored regularly. There is a need for the institutionalization of material research in Indian universities and encourage private sector to undertake research and development in this sector.
Overall, it has been observed that the ‘expanse’ of strategic materials has increased manifold during the last couple of years, and for a developing economy like India, it is important to evolve a multidisciplinary architecture for policy formulation on this subject.
An undated report (2013?) on critical material impact on India by Mukherjee: http://www.i2mconsultants.com/downloads/corp/CRITICAL_METALS_THEIR_CURRENT_STATUS_AND.pdf
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