India’s High Import Dependence On Critical Minerals Raises Supply Risks: IEEFA

The note, titled ‘India's Critical Mineral Imports: A 2025 Overview’, identifies five minerals—cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium and nickel—as vital for renewable technologies, among the 30 classified as critical by the central government due to their economic importance and supply risks. India remains 100 per cent import-dependent on lithium, cobalt and nickel, making it vulnerable to global market disruptions, export restrictions and price volatility. Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Lead Energy Specialist, India Clean Energy Transition, South Asia, at IEEFA, said, “Reserves and processing capacity for these minerals remain highly concentrated, while recent trends of export restrictions, resource nationalism, and onshoring or friend-shoring policies are fragmenting global markets that India relied upon,” “The consequences are price volatility, supply disruptions, and reduced availability, affecting import-dependent economies like India the most,” Michael added. Key Suppliers and Trade Trends The note highlighted that Chile is India’s largest supplier, mainly due to copper ore imports, while China remains a critical supplier across multiple mineral value chains. Other key partners include Belgium, Germany and Japan. For specific minerals, Finland dominates cobalt supply, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of imports, while lithium sourcing remains diversified, with Ireland leading lithium carbonate and Chile dominating lithium hydroxide imports. Tanzania supplies over half of India’s copper ore imports, and Mozambique has overtaken China in natural graphite, though China continues to dominate synthetic graphite. Australia has emerged as a key supplier of nickel compounds, while Belgium leads in nickel sulphate. Rising Supply Chain Risks Kaira Rakheja, Energy Analyst, South Asia, at IEEFA, noted, “The countries India trades with are resource holders, refiners, and technology leaders. Building resilient supply chains, therefore, will require long-term, structured partnerships that move beyond government-to-government agreements and into deep industry collaboration, joint exploration, scaled research and development, technology transfer, and recycling.” Need for Strategic Partnerships India is already pursuing diversification through diplomacy, trade and international cooperation to reduce supply risks, with relatively mature partnerships in place with Australia and Japan supported by joint ventures, secured supply and investment linkages, the note said. It is also deepening ties with the US, UK, European Union, South Africa, Zambia and Argentina, while exploring partnerships with Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique and Saudi Arabia. (KNN Bureau)