India and Australia have agreed to jointly undertake due diligence of greenfield and brownfield Lithium and Cobalt mineral assets that holds critical and strategic interest for both countries.
The plan is to involve agencies and companies in both the countries to identify opportunities that come up for mining these key minerals and take joint investment decisions and acquisition of the assets in Australia.
Following a government-to -government MoU last year, a detailed MoU with a collaborative framework has now been signed between Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL), which is mandated to identify and acquire overseas mineral assets of critical and strategic nature, and Critical Minerals Facilitation Office (CMFO), under the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER), Government of Australia. The two will jointly invest in due diligence of select projects and take joint investment decisions
Both India and Australia have committed an initial investment of $ 6 Million for the joint due diligence process in the 50:50 ratio of participating interest.
The MoU has also outlined inclusion of any other CPSE as investment partner in the asset acquisition process. An estimated timeline of six months have been envisaged for the due diligence process & further investment decisions.
As part of the ongoing bilateral engagements between Australia and India, the second India-Australia Virtual Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Scott Morrison MP, Prime Minister of Australia was held on21stMarch 2022. Both the Leaders noted that the global low carbon transition requires rapid development of clean technologies and equitable access to critical minerals. They welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between KABIL, and CMFO.
In order to ensure mineral security of the nation and to attain self-reliance in the area of critical and strategic minerals, the Ministry of Mines has created a Joint Venture company namely KABIL with participating interest of NALCO, HCL and MECL. KABIL is mandated to identify and acquire overseas mineral assets of critical and strategic nature such as Lithium, Cobalt etc. This initiative aimed at giving further fillip to AtmaNirbhar Bharat will cater to the requirements of crucial sectors such as e-mobility, renewable energy, medicine, aerospace, aviation etc.
Based on a commissioned study and selection criteria, select source countries have been shortlisted for exploring possibilities of mineral asset acquisition abroad. So far, engagements are underway with select source countries such as Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile etc. which are endowed with the cited critical and strategic minerals specifically Lithium and Cobalt in hard rock formations as in Australia and Lithium as brine in the huge tract of SALARs as in Latin American countries. The interface has been the respective Embassies and Missions of India in those countries for sharing of information with respect to prospective mineral acreages primarily with state owned organisations for taking up due diligence and investment decisions.
