Govt doubles down on rare earth elements’ extraction to boost clean energy supply chains

The Government is focusing on expanding the extraction and refining capacity of rare earth elements (REEs) as it endeavours to create a robust supply chain for critical minerals and clean energy products including nuclear power.

On Thursday, Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh in a written response in Rajya Sabha said, “At the Indian Rare Earths (IREL) Plant in Chatrapur at Ganjam (Odisha), an expansion project has been commissioned in FY25 to increase the annual capacity of mineral production by 2,00,000 tones and improve the efficiency of the plant.”

Besides, IREL is regularly infusing new technologies to boost production of atomic minerals including rare earth (RE) bearing minerals through CAPEX infusion, he added.

The operations of IREL have also stimulated economic activities since the minerals produced by IREL are utilised by a number of locally-operating Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), thus enhancing the economic growth and employment in the vicinity, Singh noted.

“At present, there are no challenges faced by the plant in terms of infrastructure, technology or market demand,” the Minister added.

IREL has plants at Chavara deposit in Kollam district of Kerala, Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and at Chatrapur in Ganjam district of Odisha.

In FY24, IREL reported a mineral production of 5.31 lakh tonnes indicating a growth of 3.3 per cent Y-o-Y. This also was the highest ever mineral production achieved by the company.

Boost to nuclear energy

Last month, the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) removed restrictions on IREL, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre (IGCAR).

The removal of Indian entities IREL, IGCAR and BARC will support US foreign policy objectives by reducing barriers to advanced energy cooperation, including joint research and development and science and technology cooperation, towards shared energy security needs and goals, BIS said.

“The removal of three Indian entities will enable closer cooperation between the US and India to secure more resilient critical minerals and clean energy supply chains,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Matthew Borman said.