Nagaur (Rajasthan) [India], May 9 : After Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi, lithium reserves have now been found in the Degana municipality of Rajasthan's Nagaur district, said Dr Arun Vyas, Professor, Department of Geology, Bangur Government P.G. College.
However, the discovery of the reserves in Nagaur is yet to get an official confirmation by Rajasthan government and the Geological Survey of India.
"Earlier, GSI reported 5.9 million tonnes of inferred reserves of lithium in Jammu and Kashmir, now the GSI has reported lithium reserves in Degana area of Nagaur district. The three hills known as Rewat Hills, Filaite Hills and Tikali Hills which also had reserves of Tungsten have reported lithium reserves as well. However, the calculation of the inferred reserves is yet to be released," said Dr Arun Vyas.
"For now, this information is under G3 stage which mentions the volume and grade of the mineral. After that under G2 & G1, work of general exploration and detailed exploration will be conducted and only then after we will be able to tell how much viability it has from a mining point of view, said the professor further"
Talking about the economic significance of the reserve Dr Vyas explained that, "China has a monopoly in the sector not because of it has large lithium reserves but the way China use it by converting Lithium into Lithium Carbonate and Lithium Oxide and then after it is used for batteries, so India also needs to develop similar kind of infrastructure to achieve that self-reliance,".
India presently relies significantly on foreign imports, particularly from China, to meet its lithium needs. In the fiscal year 2020-21, India imported lithium worth Rs 6,000 crore, of which China contributed Rs 3,500 crore.
On the other government is planning to auction lithium reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi by December, said Secretary Ministry of Mines Vivek Bharadwaj. Speaking at an industry event on Tuesday, the secretary said the ministry has written to the J&K administration for the transaction advisor for the lithium auction.
"We have completed the consultation process with stakeholders on the amendment of the offshore Mining Act. Hopefully, we will soon bring it in the parliament for discussion," Bharadwaj said. "We have been lucky to discover 5.9 million tonnes of Lithium. We were actually looking for limestones which are available in Jammu Kashmir. We found limestone, bauxite and lithium together. There has been renewed interest in exploration in these minerals," he said.
Lithium is a non-ferrous metal and is one of the key components in EV batteries, among other industries.
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