The Union Mines Ministry, by way of the state-owned Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) has entered into an settlement with Argentina’s CAYMEN SE on January 15 for exploration and mining of 5 lithium brine blocks, amid India’s push to spice up its important minerals provide to scale back carbon footprint.

KABIL, which is a three way partnership between NALCO, Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL), can also be getting ready to arrange a department workplace at Catamarca, Argentina,

The mission value is about Rs 200 crore, the ministry stated in a press assertion launched late night on January 15.

“The project will help India strengthen lithium supplies, while developing lithium mining and downstream sectors of both the countries. It will also facilitate diversification of supply chain for critical materials towards achieving Global Net Zero goals,” union minister for coals and mines Prahlad Joshi stated in a tweet.

The blocks Cortadera-I, Cortadera-VII, Cortadera-VIII, Cateo-2022-01810132 and Cortadera-VI is unfold round 15,703 hectare are situated within the Catamarca province.

“This will not only boost it’s quest for sourcing lithium for India but will also help in bringing in technical & operational experience for Brine type lithium exploration, exploitation and extraction,” the ministry stated.

Argentina is the a part of “Lithium Triangle” together with Chile and Bolivia with greater than half of world’s whole lithium sources and having the excellence of getting 2nd largest lithium sources, third largest lithium reserves and 4th largest manufacturing in world.

Lithium, also known as “white gold” as a result of its market worth and silver shade, is probably the most sought-after minerals globally. The metallic is important to India’s bold inexperienced vitality targets because it finds utilization in sectors like electrical automobiles (EV), lithium-ion batteries, cell phones, amongst others.