Owning the World’s Lithium

Context: 

The recent discovery of lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir, which are crucial for the production of batteries used in electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure, has been welcomed universally.

Status of India’s lithium industry:

• India’s electric vehicle (EV) market was valued at $383.5 million in 2021, and is expected to expand to $152.21 billion in 2030. 
• India imported 450 million units of lithium batteries valued at $929.26 million (₹6,600 crore) in 2019-­2020.

Lithium reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir:

• The new discovery of lithium in Jammu and Kashmir falls under the category of “inferred” mineral resources.
• Inferred resources have a lower level of geological confidence compared to other categories, indicating a lower certainty in estimating the quantity, grade, and mineral content.
• The estimation of the 5.9 million tonnes of lithium in Jammu and Kashmir is based on limited and uncertain information gathered from sources such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings, and drill holes.
• When compared to proven reserves in Bolivia (21 million tonnes) and Argentina (17 million tonnes), the inferred lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir are relatively smaller.

Lithium potential of India:

• There is some potential to recover lithium from brines of Sambhar and Pachpadra areas in Rajasthan, and Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. 
• Potential Geological Domains: The major mica belts located in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh and the pegmatite belts in Odisha, Chhattisgarh.
• The Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), an arm of the Department of Atomic Energy, had earlier conducted preliminary surveys that had shown the presence of lithium resources of 1,600 tonnes in the igneous rocks of the Marlagalla–Allapatna region of Karnataka’s Mandya district.

Who should own these minerals? 

• In 2013, a three judge bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that the owner of the land has rights to everything beneath, “down to the centre of the earth”. 
• Yet, large areas of land, including forests — which make up more than 22% of India’s landmass — hills, mountains, and revenue wasteland are publicly owned. 
• The Supreme Court also recalled that the Union government could always ban private actors from mining sensitive minerals, as is already the case with uranium under the Atomic Energy Act 1962.

How do other countries manage lithium reserves?

• Chile: The government has designated lithium as a strategic resource and its development has been made the exclusive prerogative of the state. 
  • The state has licensed only two companies to produce lithium in the country.
• National Lithium Strategy calls for public-private partnerships for future lithium projects, which will allow the state 
  1. To regulate the environmental impact of lithium mining
  2. Distribute the revenue from lithium production more fairly among local communities
  3. Promote domestic research into lithium based green technologies

• Bolivia: It gave the state “the control and direction over the exploration, exploitation, industrialisation, transport, and commercialisation of natural resources.

News Source: The Hindu

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