India’s new policy to recover critical minerals from mining by-products
The depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation are the two major issues that countries worldwide are currently attempting to solve. India is stepping up with a world-first policy, which will directly support the recovery of critical minerals from mining waste and tailings. Announced by India’s Union Minister for Mines G Kishan Reddy, the policy’s aim is to reduce import dependency on critical minerals, promote domestic processing industries, while also reducing environmental impacts of mining waste.
Mining activities generate staggering amounts of waste called tailings.Tailings are typically mix of crushed rock, water, and other materials which often contain traces of critical minerals. Instead of treating it as waste, dumping it in landfills or reservoirs, tailings can be turned into valuable resources to help meet India's demand for critical minerals. This is especially important as India currently imports nearly all its identified 24-odd critical minerals, making domestic recovery from tailings a strategic opportunity to improve resource security.
Queensland has a golden opportunity as it has 51 of the world’s most sought-after minerals, including aluminium, zinc, and copper, which have been mined in the state for decades. Yet, much of its mining waste remained untapped. As its program focuses mostly on research and exploration, Queensland could learn from India’s bolder reforms, which combine funding and policy changes to turn waste into valuable resources. With the demand for critical minerals expected to quadruple by 2040, Queensland can seize this opportunity to become a leader in circular mining practices.
Summarising India’s new policy:
- Target critical minerals include gold, zinc, lead, magnetites, silicate glasses, copper, and quartz from metallurgical slags and potassium, sulfur, and titanium from fly ash tailings.
- Actively encourage R&D to extract various critical minerals from secondary sources.
- Review of prohibitive regulation currently making it challenging to extract critical minerals. For example, in India, non-auctioned mines are not legally allowed to recover these minerals and auctioned mines must pay high premiums, equivalent to the premiums of the main mineral. As a result of today’s prohibitive regulation, critical minerals aren't being optimally extracted, which keeps India relying on imports. The new policy will liberalise rules and make it commercially viable for miners to recover these minerals.
- Funding mechanisms such as grants, subsidies, and tax benefits under the National Critical Minerals Mission to support scaling up existing facilities and building new recovery facilities, making capital-intensive projects more financially viable.
Current Practice in Queensland
Queensland is also taking steps to tackle mining waste, but its approach seems less ambitious than India’s. In 2024, the government launched a $5 million in funding under the Collaborative Development Program, to help companies in Queensland find ways to extract value from residual materials after mining and mineral processing. This is a part of Queensland’s broader $245 million Critical Minerals Strategy, which aims to establish the state as a leader in the global critical minerals market by accelerating the growth of the critical minerals sector. Another launched initiative includes a $5 million funding under the Collaborative Exploration Initiative to support drilling and exploration activities to determine the grade and quantity of minerals left in mine waste.