The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel will convene today at 11 am in the Parliament Library Building to deliberate on India’s strategy regarding global critical minerals. This meeting, led by Anurag Thakur, an MP from Hamirpur and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, aims to gather insights from officials on the KABIL initiative.

Key agenda items include oral testimonies from representatives of the Ministry of Mines alongside those from NITI Aayog. Both entities are set to provide evidence on the subject of ‘KABIL: India’s quest for Global Critical Minerals,’ which is crucial to ensuring India’s mineral resource security.

This initiative is essential for understanding how India plans to secure strategic minerals that are either scarce or unavailable domestically.

KABIL’s Role in Mineral Sourcing

Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) operates as a joint venture that includes three government enterprises: National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), and Mineral Exploration & Consultancy Limited (MECL). This partnership is structured in a 40:30:30 ratio under the supervision of the Ministry of Mines. KABIL is tasked with identifying, exploring, acquiring, and developing opportunities for strategic minerals outside Indian borders.

The primary focus of KABIL is to strengthen India’s mineral sourcing capabilities, particularly for lithium and cobalt, through international investments and acquisitions. The initiative is designed to meet domestic demand for these critical minerals. Reports indicate that KABIL is currently engaged in negotiations with several Latin American countries and Australia, where there is significant potential for these resources.

KABIL’s objectives align with the broader national agenda to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative by securing necessary resources for domestic consumption and production, ultimately enhancing India’s self-sufficiency in strategic minerals.

Recent Developments in Mining Sector

Since the initiation of the auction regime in 2015, a total of 108 mineral blocks have been successfully auctioned from FY 2015-16 to FY 2020-21. The pace of these auctions accelerated significantly, with 364 mineral blocks auctioned between FY 2021-22 to FY 2024-25, averaging approximately 90 blocks annually. This underscores a trend of increased mining activity and investment in recent years.

In FY 2025-26 alone, a remarkable 212 mineral blocks have already been auctioned, setting a record for the highest number in a single financial year since the auction regime commenced. This includes 22 critical and strategic mineral blocks, highlighting the government’s ongoing commitment to securing essential resources for economic growth and transitioning to clean energy.

Moreover, the meeting assessed the operational status of auctioned blocks, noting that 36 mineral blocks, consisting of 28 greenfield and 8 brownfield sites, have been operationalised so far in FY 2025-26. This figure contrasts with the 58 blocks operationalised from FY 2015-16 to FY 2024-25, reflecting significant progress and a commitment to enhancing mineral resource management in India.

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