Coal India has emerged as the preferred bidder for the rare earth elements exploration block in Ontillu- Chandragiri, Andhra Pradesh. In an exchange filing, the state-owned company said on Tuesday that the Ministry of Mines has awarded a Grant of Exploration License to the company.
Furthermore, Coal India stated that as part of the award, the company will get an exploration block of 209 square km to mine rare earth elements.
Coal India’s strategic search for rare earth elements
In recent months, Coal India has made several initiatives to strategically diversify its business beyond coal. Besides renewable energy, rare earth elements are the key sector that Coal India has forayed into.
Coal India has taken up several projects across the country where it is sampling the amount of rare earth elements across various coal mine waste and is further expanding its technology for extraction.
A key project by Coal India is the Singrauli coalfield, where it has found promising REE concentration with enrichment of about 250 ppm on a whole coal basis in coal samples & about 400 ppm in Non-Coal samples.
Technology development
Coal India said in July that it is developing indigenous technologies for the extraction of critical minerals from overlying strata of the North Eastern coalfields.
The company added that it has been undertaken with an objective to develop enrichment techniques of critical metals from non-coal strata by physical separations and extraction techniques of critical metals from non-coal strata, and Acid mine drainage by Ion-Exchange Resin.
National Critical Mineral Mission
India approved the National Critical Mineral Mission on July 29 to expand its production of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel. The government has approved a budget of Rs 34,000 crore for a period of seven years, with a 16,000 crore in government expenditure and Rs 18,000 capex from PSUs
The mission also has provisions for a Rs 100 crore allocation for pilot projects, which are the key drivers of the industry-wide surge in interest in rare earth elements.