Industrialist Anand Mahindra – known for his frequent social media posts – hailed the lithium findings at Salal-Haimana in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)’s Reasi district. Responding to a Hindustan Times post, Mahindra said, “No doubt now, that India’s future will be ‘electrifying’”.
The Geological Survey of India has discovered 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves for the first time in the country in Jammu and Kashmir, the union government informed on Thursday.
Lithium is a non-ferrous metal and is used for making electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Notably, more than half of the world’s lithium comes from Australia, and out of the total lithium available, only 18 percent is currently accessible. Meanwhile, the world’s largest lithium deposit is in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia – where mining is currently restricted due to government rules.
According to the Union government, 51 mineral blocks including lithium and gold were handed over to respective state governments.
Out of the total 51 mineral blocks – 5 blocks pertain to gold and other blocks pertain to commodities including potash, molybdenum, and base metals, among others – spread across 11 states of Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, reported ANI citing the Ministry of Mines.
Along with these, 17 other reports of coal and lignite with a total resource of 7,897 million tonnes have been handed over to the ministry of coal.