The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has found lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time, Vivek Bharadwaj, secretary of the Union ministry of mines, said on February 9.
Speaking at the 62nd Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) meeting, Bharadwaj said, “GSI has, for the first time, established lithium inferred resources (G3) of 5.9 million tons in Salal-Haimana area of Reasi District of Jammu and Kashmir. I congratulate GSI for realising the commitment made by the Central government for auction of 500 blocks by submitting 287 geological memorandum and 195 G2 and G3 reports to the state government since 2015. But, GSI should carry forward this momentum and continue the field programmes with the same vigor.”
Lithium is used mainly in the battery industry which is growing exponentially in India, given the government’s push for electric vehicles. It is also used for other battery storage systems such as in the electricity sector. The Government on May 12, 2021 approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for manufacturing of Advance Chemistry Cell (ACC) in the country. The total outlay of the scheme is Rs. 18,100 crores for a period of five years.
He later said that in the coming financial year (2023-24), the government is going to focus on exploration of strategic and critical minerals, including fertilizer minerals. “GSI is taking up 966 programmes comprising 318 mineral exploration projects including 12 marine mineral investigation projects. Major thrust has been given on the exploration of strategic - critical and fertilizer minerals. A total of 115 projects on strategic and critical minerals including 16 projects on fertilizer minerals have been formulated. In addition, 55 programmes on geo-informatics, 140 programmes on fundamental and multidisciplinary geosciences and 155 programs for training and institutional capacity building have also been taken up,” he said.
The GSI was set up in 1851 primarily to find coal deposits for the railways. Now, its main functions relate to creating and updating of national geoscientific information and mineral resource assessment. These objectives are achieved through ground surveys, air-borne and marine surveys, mineral prospecting and investigations, multidisciplinary geoscientific, geotechnical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismic-tectonic study and carrying out fundamental research.
At the meeting, not only the report on lithium in Jammu-Kashmir was handed over, but 15 other resource bearing geological reports (G2 & G3 stage) and 35 Geological memorandums were also handed over to the respective state governments. “Of these 51 mineral blocks, 5 blocks pertain to gold and other blocks pertain to commodities like potash, molybdenum, base metals etc. spread across 11 states of Jammu & Kashmir (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. The blocks were prepared based on the work carried out by GSI from field seasons 2018-19 to till date,” the ministry later said in a statement.
Apart from these, 17 reports of coal and lignite with a total resource of 7897 million tons were also handed over to ministry of coal. Seven publications on different themes and intervention areas in which GSI operates were also released during the meeting.
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