New Delhi: The Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation (TEXMiN) has entered into a strategic alliance with Magnora RE Tech Pvt Ltd to explore collaboration in rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs), critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs). TEXMiN is hosted at the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), or IIT (ISM), Dhanbad. In a statement issued on Tuesday, it said Magnora is coming in as a strategic investor and industry partner.
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A third company will play a supporting role. ELITech Earth Science Pvt Ltd is expected to provide project management consultancy and technical coordination, though the statement described this support as proposed. TEXMiN brings the research and technology base, Magnora the investment and ELITech the project execution. With that split, the partners intend to build a domestic value chain running from critical mineral resources to finished magnet products, the statement said.
According to the statement, the partnership responds to India’s growing demand for REPMs. It named electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and advanced electronics among the applications that depend on these magnets.
“Rare earth permanent magnets are central to India’s economic and technological security, and building indigenous capability in this space needs research, industry and execution to work together,” said Sukumar Mishra, Director of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and Chairman of TEXMiN’s Hub Governing Board. “This alliance with Magnora RE Tech, supported by ELITech, is a step in that direction.”
Mishra also placed the alliance within the institute’s wider work. “It reflects our continued commitment to translating research from our institute into solutions that serve India’s strategic and industrial priorities,” he said.
TEXMiN Director Dheeraj Kumar spoke of combining the park’s strengths with those of its partners. “Through this association, we look forward to bringing TEXMiN’s technological and institutional strengths together with the industry and project expertise of our partners,” he said.
Kumar set out the goal in terms of the supply chain. “Our aim is to help strengthen the domestic value chain for critical minerals, rare earth elements and rare earth permanent magnets, and to contribute to India’s growing critical minerals ecosystem,” he said. “We are keen to take this collaboration forward and turn it into meaningful outcomes.”
The statement said the collaboration was aligned with national priorities. It named the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat 2047. It also spoke of the partners’ shared commitment to reducing import dependence and building self-reliance in critical mineral technologies.
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TEXMiN is a Section 8 company with the status of a technology translation research park (TTRP). According to the statement, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) set it up at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS). Its work centres on commercially viable solutions for mineral exploration and mining. These draw on artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, blockchain, drones, robotics, digital twins and satellite imagery, the statement said.
