New Delhi: India and Germany are working towards partnerships to develop critical mineral blocks in India, with a list of 67 blocks already shared with the German side, Gottfried von Gemmingen, Head of Economic Cooperation and Development at the German Embassy in New Delhi, told Energy Watch in an interview.
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"The Indian government has shared a list of 67 critical mineral mining blocks," he said. "And German companies are encouraged to contact these companies to develop individual partnerships." He added, "And FDI also is possible."
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of up to 100 percent is permitted under the automatic route for mining and exploration of metal and non-metal ores. The Ministry of Mines introduced the exploration licence for deep-seated and critical minerals in July 2023, which opened exploration to full foreign ownership through the automatic route.
The cooperation runs through the Joint Declaration of Intent on critical minerals signed during Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit. Merz was in India on January 12 and 13 this year, and the two governments signed 19 memorandums and joint declarations during the trip.
"This joint declaration, which was concluded, covers cooperation across the entire value chain," Gemmingen said, "including exploration, processing, recycling and the establishment of resilient supply chains."
The India-Germany joint statement issued after the visit said the two sides aim to explore opportunities in exploration, R&D, value addition through processing and recycling, and the acquisition and development of critical mineral assets in both countries and in third countries.
On the German side, the agencies involved are the German Raw Materials Agency and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). Gemmingen listed the areas settled so far as geoscientific exploration, research and innovation, investment in infrastructure, integration of the value chain, and midstream and downstream value addition.
"And all this is in the steps of implementation," he said.
A further instrument is in the pipeline. "There is another MOU being planned between the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the BGR, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources," he said.
On the research side, he said "nine centres of excellence are identified from the government of India and Germany will collaborate in joint funding of research projects, infrastructure."
Asked where activity was concentrated, Gemmingen said: "What I heard is that very much is going on on the technology side, on the processing side."
"We have engaged with the Ministry of Heavy Industries also to look at critical minerals processing for permanent magnets and also for battery storage," he said.
He did not address the third-country asset provision of the joint declaration.
India's own auction pipeline has been moving in parallel. The Ministry of Mines launched the eighth tranche of critical and strategic mineral block auctions on July 15, offering 20 blocks across nine states. Through seven completed tranches, 56 of 88 critical and strategic blocks taken to auction had been awarded. India auctioned a record 212 mineral blocks in FY2025-26, of which 22 were critical and strategic blocks.
On the Green and Sustainable Development Partnership (GSDP), under which Germany pledged at least EUR 10 billion to India between 2022 and 2030, Gemmingen said close to half had been committed at the halfway mark.
"And end of last year, we had annual government negotiations and we took stock and we said we committed almost 5 billion by end of last year," he said. "So, this is committed." He added: "So, we really (are at) 50 percent by 50 percent of time."
Asked whether the partnership involves equity or blended capital alongside concessional lending, he said: "Well, most of the loans are actually blended finance." He described the structure as "loans which are subsidised from the German budget to a level which is applicable as official development assistance." Technical assistance delivered through GIZ, he said, "is completely grant funded."
Around 90 percent of GSDP funding is structured as loans, according to the partnership's own published framework.
Gemmingen traced the energy strand of the relationship back to its fossil-fuel origins, including German machinery supplied to Neyveli Lignite Corporation, now NLC India Ltd. The official said that the bilateral co-operation between India and Germany in the energy sector has come a long way since then.
He said KfW signed a loan agreement with NLC India some months ago, on commercial terms, to establish a solar and battery storage park on former mining sites. NLC India signed a EUR 100 million loan agreement with KfW on April 20 to support solar generation and battery energy storage projects.
"That shows that in this energy transition, we do it together," he said. "It's not that somebody from abroad comes and says, no, don't do this anymore."
The cooperation now extends to coal mine closure. He said Germany has collaborated with the Ministry of Coal on mining sites that are about to be closed, adding that renewable energy will play a large part in bringing a sustainable development dimension to those sites.
Von Gemmingen said Germany is working with the Ministry of Power on grid stabilisation and integration. "This is a big bottleneck in the Indian success story in ramping up renewable energies," he said.
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On carbon pricing, he said: "We are working together with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in further developing the Indian carbon market."
