In 2018, a Geological Survey of India (GSI) team reached Salal, a hamlet nestling among the high mountains in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, to collect samples for identification of different minerals.
The team stayed put in Salal, 77 kilometres from Jammu, and kept collecting samples for research, investigation and processing.
On February 9, the ministry of mines claimed that it had discovered huge deposits of lithium — 5.9 million tonnes — in the village. If the estimate of 5.9 million tonnes of reserves in Salal turns out to be true, India will have the fifth-largest lithium reserves in the world, ahead of the US.
The discovery is crucial, given that it comes at a time when India is going all out for a green transition, particularly in transportation, where electric vehicle adoption is being given a big push. Lithium is used in the batteries that power EVs, mobile phones and other applications, and the discovery will be a boost for the government’s Make in India programme.
Following the big announcement, the ecstatic villagers wondered how a rare metal had been found in their village. “For the past two years I have seen GSI teams surveying the hills just outside our homes but I had no idea what they were doing until the news of the lithium discovery broke out on social media. All these years 15-20 GSI employees stayed here in a house and conducted exploratory work in our village,” said Vipin Sharma, a local.
Deputy Sarpanch Salal Rajinder Singh recalled that two years back, the engineers and geological experts had informed him about the presence of lithium in Salal village. “Back then I did not know anything about lithium. But I found the GSI staff testing rocks, etc. The samples were collected five feet deep by drilling and each sample was crushed into pieces before it was taken to Lucknow for testing,” said Singh.
Sharma, 39, attributed the discovery of lithium to the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to J&K. “Earlier, the big companies and firms were hesitant to work in J&K because under Article 370 no outsider was allowed to buy land here. When the central government revoked the special status in August 2019, the central government as well as companies showed interest in working and investing in our region.”
Painstaking work
Adhering to the guidelines of the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) and the Mineral Evidence and Mineral Content Rules, the GSI team, according to officials, performed reconnaissance surveys, preliminary exploration and general exploration.
The officials said that GSI staff had conducted detailed geophysical work, including borehole logging, drilling and collecting core samples.
Assistant district mineral officer Naveen Kumar told Moneycontrol that the area where lithium deposits are located is 6 kilometres long and 3 kilometres wide. “The GSI team … found not just lithium reserves but small amounts of titanium, aluminium and other metals,” he said.
Villagers to be relocated
Kumar added that following the mining ministry’s lithium announcement there was no immediate communication on the next step. “Now, the GSI will demarcate the area, after which the whole village will be fenced. The entire village will be used for mining and therefore the inhabitants living in hundreds of residential houses will be shifted and rehabilitated by the government.”
Salal, according to local panchayat members, has a population of around 8,000 living in around 2,500 houses.
The real heroes: KK Sharma and SC Uppal
The potential for lithium reserves in Salal was first noted in 1990, when geologists KK Sharma and SC Uppal spotted promising signs in Reasi district, then a part of Udhampur district, and proposed further exploratory work. But no interest was shown by the government, as there was little demand for lithium at the time.
Shafiq Ahmed, district geology and mining officer Reasi told Moneycontrol that with the introduction of mobile phones, the demand for lithium increased, pushing the government to search for deposits of the crucial mineral, which is mostly used in the batteries of mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles.
“There was no doubt a study available on the possibility of lithium in Reasi district but there was no focus on it. In 1999 the demand for lithium was not high compared to now. It increased tremendously due to the emergence of mobile phones and the thriving automobile industry (EVs). Therefore the government started surveys to find it within the country,” said Ahmed.
Both locals, as well as the district administration, claim that the Salal lithium site can be a game changer because India has been importing the mineral from different countries, including China/Hong Kong, Australia and Argentina.
In 2021, smaller deposits of lithium were found in Karnataka but the recent discovery of this large deposit in Reasi will be a boon for India’s battery production plans.
Also, the demand for rare metals, including lithium, has gone up worldwide with the impact of climate change forcing countries to seek greener solutions.
