'India's heavy minerals industry has the potential to displace China's monopoly'

NEW DELHI: India has the potential to tap its vast natural treasure of beach sand minerals and also produce value-added products to earn forex and generate employment, said Trimex Sands Private Limited's (TSPL) managing director Pradeep Koneru. Urging the government to allow the indigenous beach sand mineral industry to flourish in a domain being monopolised by China, Koneru said: "Currently, China controls over 95% of world’s rare earth supply and its complete monopoly is quite undesirable for the world. At the same time, despite owning 70% of the world’s monazite reserves, India still imports 100% of its needs of rare earth and rare-earth-based components. This must change now as we move towards a self-reliant India."He pointed out an oversight has caused stumbling blocks in the high-potential industry in India, which could otherwise yield nearly Rs 30,000 crore in annual turnover to the exchequer and provide jobs to thousands. “The Notification No. G.S.R. 134(E) dated February 20, 2019 issued by ministry of mines that reserves the mining of beach sand minerals for government companies only has led to huge job losses and brought billions of private sector investments to a grinding halt,” said Koneru. India has significant resources of ilmenite, garnet, sillimanite, rutile, zircon and monazite containing rare earths, but these remain grossly under-utilized with the production to reserve ratio (PRR) being a meager of 0.0018%, when compared to global PRR of 0.01%. India is stuck in this paradox and must leverage its plentiful resources to transform into a major global producer. Koneru appealed to the Prime Minister to rescind the notification stating that if private sector is given a level playing field in this sector and India can expand to achieve the PRR of 0.01%, the sector would attract capital investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore and create job opportunities for over a million people in India."Development of the rare earth and titanium production business in India will not only make India self-sufficient but also spin-off several downstream manufacturing businesses creating a platform for capital investment, employment creation under the 'Make In India' program," he said.Welcoming the measures taken by the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on ‘Vocal for Local’, the TSPL managing director also praised the recently announced Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package and termed it as a well thought out plan towards economic revival as well as for making India self-reliant.