New Delhi: The Ministry of Mines said on Friday that it has intensified its engagement with private recyclers to create domestic capacity for recovering critical minerals from e-waste, spent lithium-ion batteries and other industrial scrap within the next few years. The initiative comes under the Rs 1,500-crore incentive scheme for critical mineral recycling, aimed at building a secure supply chain for minerals essential to clean energy technologies and advanced manufacturing.
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Approved by the Union Cabinet on September 3, 2025, the scheme is part of the National Critical Mineral Mission and is designed to support the extraction of valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths from secondary sources. The detailed guidelines were issued on October 2 following stakeholder consultations, and the application process was launched the same day.
Officials said the fast rollout of the scheme has drawn strong interest from recyclers and dismantlers. The scheme provides financial support to entities engaged in actual extraction of critical minerals, and not merely those producing intermediate black mass. Incentives are capped at Rs 50 crore for large recyclers and Rs 25 crore for smaller ones.
The government is also working to secure feedstock availability through the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, which mandates extraction of specified end-products under e-waste and battery waste management rules. While India currently generates about 1.75 million tonnes of e-waste and 60 kilotonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries annually, much of this material remains unprocessed or is exported without metal recovery.
Customs duty elimination for lithium-ion battery scrap, announced in the Union Budget 2025–26, is expected to further facilitate the import of feedstock for recycling. The Ministry of Mines expects the volume of e-waste and battery scrap to increase manifold over the next four to five years.
The incentive scheme encourages recyclers to adopt advanced processes such as hydrometallurgy for metal extraction. Proven end-to-end recycling technologies are already available in India, with institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and other R&D laboratories developing indigenous solutions for metal recovery and purification.
These institutes are also engaged in training programs in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, ensuring that any skill gaps under the scheme can be met through institutional tie-ups by the beneficiaries.
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By aligning fiscal incentives with extraction and refining outcomes, the government aims to formalise the recycling value chain, attract investment from both large and small players, and reduce dependence on imported critical minerals. Officials said the effort is part of a broader transition toward a circular economy in critical minerals, where waste streams are recognised as strategic resources.
