India Discovers 5.9 Million Tonnes of Lithium Reserves in Jammu and Kashmir

Armin Mueller, CEO of Deutsche Lithium GmbH, holds a rock of Zinnwaldite, a silicate mineral that contains lithium, hewn from a passage in a former tin and wolfram mine in Zinnwald near Altenberg, Germany, on Dec. 13, 2017. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

India has found 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir provinces, the country’s first major discovery, which experts believe could help India advance its goal to increase the production of electric vehicles (EVs).

The Geological Survey of India made the discovery in the Salal-Haimana region of Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, according to a statement issued by the Indian Atomic Energy Department.

The Ministry of Mines handed over a report on this, along with 15 other resource-bearing geological reports and 35 geological memorandums, to the relevant state governments on Feb. 9.

Lithium is the main element of lithium-ion batteries, a critical component of smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles.

India previously discovered 1,600 tonnes of lithium reserves in the Mandya district of Karnataka in February 2021. The latest discovery is expected to help the country achieve its goal to attain 30 percent EV adoption by 2030.

There are 98 million tonnes of lithium in the world, and India has found 5.5 percent of these rare resources, The Wire reported, citing an official from the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment, and Water.

India’s EVs Adoption

Deepak Krishnan, associate director of research firm WRI India, said the lithium reserves were labeled as “inferred resources,” indicating a need for further exploration efforts to convert the estimated resources to an exploitable category.

“There are a few stages of assessment before we can identify the proven reserve of lithium in the Salal-Haimana deposit. If this ends up being substantial, it can help India reduce its import dependence for lithium in the future and help the stationary battery system and EV battery industries,” Krishnan told The Wire.

“This builds on earlier announcements of lithium deposits in Karnataka, and the focus must now shift to assessing the commercial extraction potential,” he added.

Pankaj Sharma, director of the Indian nanotechnology company Log9 Materials, told Business Today that India has had to rely on imports of batteries and other EV components due to the unavailability of lithium, but the latest discovery may change this.

“Lithium being one of the core elements of the lithium-ion batteries and taking into consideration the financial impact of sourcing lithium, the recent discovery of lithium reserves in [Jammu and Kashmir] does come in as a new lease of life as it further enables India’s ambition to become self-sufficient in its energy storage needs,” Sharma said.

China currently dominates global EV production and domestic adoption of new energy vehicles is well advanced. The China Passenger Car Association expects sales of new energy cars, mainly EVs, to hit 8.5 million units this year, or 36 percent of all new sales.

Jain monks ride on an electric vehicle along a street in Ahmedabad, India, on Nov. 20, 2021. Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images

Despite new momentum in India, the question for the country is whether it will be enough to ultimately shake its fossil fuel dependency.

“Limited charging infrastructure, low domestic EV production and high EV battery costs remain some of the key hurdles in maintaining strong EV uptake in the long run,” Dylan Sim, oil market analyst at FGE, told Reuters.

India’s progress is modest by global comparisons, however, last year registered EVs tripled to 1.01 million from 2021, most of them two- and three-wheelers.

While EVs make up just 1 percent of the 3 million cars sold each year, New Delhi wants to grow this to 30 percent by 2030.

The government launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme in 2015 to promote EVs through purchase subsidies and production incentives.

Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey said last year that the sale of EVs in India increased from 19,100 units in the 2019–2020 period, when the scheme first launched, to 442,901 units as of Dec. 9, 2022.

India’s state refiners, which dominate fuel retailers, plan to set up EV charging facilities at more than 22,000 fuel stations and highways by 2024.

Reuters contributed to this report.