Towards a resilient minerals and metals future for India at Minerals,Mining and Metals conclave by BCC&I

I thank the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and industry for organising a discussion on the future of India’s metals and mining sector. While the development of new processes for extraction and emergence of new applications have raised the value of metals like Lithium and Neodymium, steel remains dominant. Much of the discussion was centred around securing supplies for iron ore and scaling India's steel production.

Although there is no shortage of Iron ore in India, steel producers have often imported high iron content ore and depending upon the market conditions exported ore from India too. To scale India's steel production manufacturers will need to build factories that can process more ore and cut down on exports. But for that to happen energy needs to be scaled proportionally.

This issue is complicated as calls for sustainability grow louder. Hydrogen has proved itself a capable fuel/reducing agent for green steel production. Another method is molten iron ore electrolysis. What method the industry adopts though remains to be seen.

One issue that I think is important but remained unaddressed was alloying. Steel corrodes and unless stainless steel or some other alloy is used it needs careful maintenance. Chromium and other elements like vanadium are nowhere near as abundant as iron ore but they are present in such small quantities as alloys that they can be used in specialty products. Carbon steel is good enough if protected well. Perhaps it might not be such a bad idea to discover alternative ways of protecting steel and enhancing its life.

Beyond steel though rare earths are really becoming major talking points. Lithium is immensely important as a battery material. Although there seems to be enough Lithium it's not evenly distributed. Plus the processing techniques are not available even to those nations that have sufficient reserves. Research has already started on Na ion batteries and promising demonstrations have been made but even those may suffer from locked in techniques. It might be useful to explore thermal batteries and hydrogen as fuels that are simpler to produce and are versatile even if they may be somewhat less energy efficient.

Neodymium is another material that's rare but technically important as it makes for strong permanent magnets. But apart from its rarity its extraction process is somewhat complex. Not a problem for nations that are already industrialised but those who are not willing depend upon process transfer will find it tough to be able to produce magnets even if they have rich ore deposits. This problem is often overlooked.

There are alternatives. Synthetic lodestones can be manufactured which, although weak, can produce relatively powerful electromagnets capable of generating electrical energy especially in stationary setups where weight doesn't matter. A variant of this technique is already used in many power plants so it could be adapted for smaller setups too.

Even for strong permanent magnets there are developments that are worth pursuing. It has become possible to nitride iron powders using ammonia with precise temperature control (~250C) Sintering these powders form strong Fe16N2 PM which while weaker than Nd magnets are still good enough for industrial uses and consumer applications.

Pursuing extraction of rare earths and securing supply chains for it is certainly important. Equally important though is to develop materials that reduce the dependency on them.

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Materials science/International relations/Partnerships

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