The Australia-India Critical Minerals Research Hub (AICMRH) has been approved by India’s Ministry of Education (MoE) to provide advice on critical minerals extraction and processing,  criticality assessments, economic geology, sustainable mining practices, and supply chain analyses.

The MoE and Government of India has formed an Empowered Committee for Industry and International Collaborations (ECIIC). Critical minerals has been chosen as one of the 12 themes on which ECIIC would focus and IIT Hyderabad has been asked by the MoE to lead the country on this theme.

A Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) proposal, led by IIT Hyderabad and Monash University has brought together various Indian and Australian Universities, R&D labs and industries in the field of critical minerals. This has been sanctioned by MoE recently with funding of $1.15m and is expected to strengthen India-Australia collaborations in the field of critical minerals.

The collaboration aims to develop skills and talent to drive a transition towards sustainable resource management by following the G20’s commitment to diversify supply chains for energy transitions. The two countries could also work together for carbon capture storage and utilisation, coal preparation upgrading and fugitive emissions from coal mining.