🔖 **Rare Earth Elements (REE) in India** 🌍 Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are 17 critical metals vital for high-tech industries! 🚀 They power electric vehicle (EV) motors ⚡️, wind turbines 🌬️, advanced sensors 📡, smartphones 📱, and military gear 🛡️. Key REEs include neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—superstars for EV and hybrid magnets! 🧲 🔖 **Types of REE** - **Magnetic REE** (key for green tech 🌱): Permanent magnets (Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium, Terbium) 🧲 🔖 **China’s Dominance** 🇨🇳 - Mines >70% of global REE ⛏️ - Controls >90% of REE processing/refining 🏭 (Complex, hazardous, tech-heavy process!) - April 2025: China tightened export licenses 📜, slowing global REE access and gripping the supply chain! 😬 🔖 **India’s REE Scene** 🇮🇳 - 5th largest REE resources globally! 🌎 - **Challenges**: - Low-grade deposits (low concentration) 😕 - Radioactive (tied to thorium, costly to extract) ☢️ - Heavy REEs (Dysprosium, Terbium) not extractable in viable amounts 🚫 - Only Neodymium & Praseodymium extractable (99.9% purity) from Beach Sand Minerals (BSM) at tiny concentrations (0.0011%–0.012%) 🏖️ - India’s REEs are mostly Light Rare Earth Elements (LREE) 🌟 🔖 **REE Value Chain in India** ✅ **What we’ve got**: Mining ⛏️, beneficiation, oxide refining, metal extraction 🛠️ ❌ **What’s missing**: Industrial-scale production of alloys, magnets, and components (e.g., motors) 🏭 No intermediate industry due to limited tech access 😔 🔖 **Import Dependency** 📦 - India leans heavily on imported REEs 🇨🇳🇯🇵🇷🇺🇺🇸🇰🇷 - Imports jumped from 1,848 tonnes (2019–20) to 2,270 tonnes (2023–24) 📈 🔖 **Strategic Moves** 🗺️ - **National Critical Mineral Mission** launched to secure supply chains! 🔒 - Boosts local exploration 🕵️‍♂️ and global sourcing 🌐 - **GSI Exploration (2021–2025)**: - 195 critical mineral projects in 2024–25 🛠️ - 35+ projects in Rajasthan for Neodymium, Dysprosium, and other REEs 🏜️ - Dept. of Atomic Energy found 111,845 tonnes of in-situ REO in Balotra, Rajasthan! 🎉 #ree 🌟🧲