Strategic Materials: A Resource Challenge for India

Ajey Lele
Group Captain Ajey Lele (Retd.) was a Senior Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and headed its Centre on Strategic Technologies. He started his professional… Continue reading Strategic Materials: A Resource Challenge for India read more
Parveen Bhardwaj
Publisher: Pentagon Press
ISBN 978-81-8274-786-9
Price: ₹. 795/- Purchase Download E-copy

About the Book

The scramble for natural resources is not a new phenomenon. Every state, either developed or developing, is always found busy ‘managing’ resources for its sustenance and growth. Minerals (also called materials) is one the crucial natural resource which plays a significant part in the development of both civilian and military industrial complexes of nation-states. There are a few minerals which are categorized as ‘strategic’ because of their importance for the industries and owing to natural and man-made difficulties in their procurement. This work debates the issues of strategic materials and their importance for nation-states. There has been an attempt here to contextualize the importance of strategic materials from a national security perspective. This study presents a macro view with regard to India’s strategic minerals architecture and undertakes analysis to understand current and futuristic challenges and opportunities in this sector, and offers a few recommendations based on the assessment undertaken. Issues related to Rare Earth and new materials are also discussed.

Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables
The Thought

  1. Introduction
  2. Strategic Materials: An Overview
    Mineral Chemistry
    Important Materials
    Elucidating Strategic Minerals
  3. Global Distribution of Strategic Mineral Resources
    Africa
    Australia
    Brazil
    China
    India
    United States
  4. Risk Assessment of India
    India’s Strategic Materials ‘Resource Management’ Assessment
    Broad Evaluation
    In closing
  5. India’s Import Dependency
    DRC
    Australia
    Brazil
    China
    Russia
    United States
  6. Challenges for the Indian Mining Sector
    Environmental Impacts of Mining
    Impacts of Open Pit Mining
    Threat fromNaxalism
    Illegal Mining
  7. Rare Earth Materials
    What are REEs?
    Explicit REE Significance
    Global REE Deposits and Mining Processes
    REEs and China
    Challenging the Chinese Monopoly
    India and REEs
    REEs on the Critical List
    Wrapping up
  8. Emerging Materials
    Graphene
    Germanane
    Stanene
    Metamaterials
    3D Printing Technology
    Molybdenum disulphide
    New Solar Cells
    Shape Memory Alloys
    Self-Healing Artificial Material
    Boron, Aluminium and Magnesium (BAM) ‘Ceramic’ Alloy
    Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC)
    Qingsongite
  9. Conclusion and Recommendations

APPENDICES
Appendix A: History of Mining and Evolution of Mineral Legislation in India
Appendix B: MMDR Act, 1957
Appendix C: MMDR Act, 1957; Amended up to 10th May, 2012
Appendix D: Press Release MMDR Bill, 2011, September 2011
Appendix E: Press Release MMDR Bill, August 2013

Index