Amid Chinese Ban, Indian Rare Earth magnet imports touched records high.

India’s rare earth magnet (made from alloys of rare earth minerals) imports increased sharply in FY25, touching $291 million as opposed to an annual average of $249 million over the last four years.

It was reaffirmed by a report issued by the central bank – The State bank of India. In a report titled ‘China’s ban on Rare Earth and Permanent Magnets: Implications for India’, the SBI noted that total imports of rare earth minerals and compounds have been around $33 million per year for the last four years. In FY25, these imports stood at $31.9 million. The report also named the main sectors that are drastically affected by China’s export restrictions of these rare earth magnets: transport equipment, basic metals, machinery, construction, electrical, and electronics.

Meanwhile, the Singrauli coalfields of Madhya Pradesh show promising reserves of Rare Earth Elements (REE), as informed to the Parliament on Monday by the Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy. REEs are a group of metallic elements, like scandium and yttrium, that are used in areas such as clean energy, electronics, and mobility.

Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy said that Coal India Ltd (CIL) has undertaken research and development projects related to REE found in coal mine waste. “Results from appraisal of Gondwana Sediments (coal, clay, shale, Sandstone) for Trace Elements & REE concentration in the Singrauli coalfield, indicate that REE are ‘promising’ in nature (with an enrichment of 250 ppm on a whole coal basis in coal samples and 400 ppm in non-coal samples)“.

However, economic extraction of REEs is subject to technical advancement and economies of scale. Results from the assessment of REE and other economic resources from the North Eastern Region Coalfield indicate that total REE is low, but heavy REE contents are relatively high, he explained.

The development of indigenous technology for the extraction of critical minerals, including REE, from overlying strata of northeastern coalfields has been undertaken with an objective to develop an enrichment technique of critical metals from non-coal strata by physical separations and an extraction technique of critical metals from non-coal strata and acid mine drainage by ion-exchange Resin.

“The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has signed MoU’s with the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar; the Non-Ferrous Materials Technology Development Centre (NFTDC), Hyderabad; and IIT, Hyderabad for research in this field,” the minister explained.

Team Maverick