New Delhi: Each of the four critical mineral processing parks planned under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) will be dedicated to a single element rather than to critical minerals in general, Mines Secretary Keshav Chandra said on Thursday. Lithium and nickel are the first two elements being taken up.
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Chandra was speaking at a press conference. He said the intention is to concentrate the full value chain for one element in one location.
"We are moving forward with lithium and nickel. Nickel is a very critical element in the battery sector. Battery is the most important component for the whole world. For both of them, we are fast forwarding," Chandra said.
"You must have heard that we are planning to devise critical mineral processing parks in four states. We will make an ecosystem in each park with a particular element. Lithium's ecosystem will be in a particular park. Nickel's ecosystem will be in a particular park. So that downstream industries and processing industries can be developed together. The value addition will be in one place," he said.
He added that the ministry is working quickly on the plan. "We will bring both of them soon. For this, we are identifying designated parks," he said.
"These four parks... one is in Gujarat, another in Maharashtra, the third in Andhra Pradesh and the fourth in Odisha," he said.
The locations were finalised earlier this year. Former Mines Secretary Piyush Goyal said in April that the sites had been settled following a review meeting on April 22 with the state governments of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. He had said then that the four states were chosen for their port access, which he described as critical for handling mineral supply chains.
The parks are backed by an allocation of Rs 500 crore under the NCMM.
The Odisha park will come up inside the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region at Paradip, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey told Parliament. Corresponding site details for the Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh parks have not been announced.
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Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy set out the division of responsibility between the Centre and the states. "The planning itself will be done by the state government. We will extend full technical support," Reddy said.
