Coal India scouts global rare-earth mining partnerships to cut China supply dependence
Coal India is exploring partnership opportunities in rare-earth mining across Australia, Russia, Argentina, Chile and several African countries, as India looks to reduce reliance on China-dominated supply chains, a top executive at its coking coal-focused arm said on Thursday. The move follows China’s expansion of export curbs on rare-earth minerals late last year, raising concerns for industries such as automobiles and electronics that depend heavily on these critical materials.
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Kumar Agarwal told Reuters that the initiative is still in the early stages, and Coal India is pursuing both overseas and domestic opportunities. Within India, the company aims to collaborate with state-run firms including IREL, Khanij Bidesh India Ltd and Hindustan Copper, to strengthen the country’s access to rare-earth minerals.
The planned partnerships will be supported using proceeds from BCCL’s $119 million initial public offering, which closed on Tuesday after being oversubscribed nearly 147 times, with the company set to list on Monday. Agarwal added that BCCL also plans to acquire coking coal mines in Australia and Russia over the next two to three years, and aims to increase its coking coal production capacity to 56 million tonnes per annum by fiscal 2030, from 40.5 MTPA at the end of fiscal 2025, driven by expectations of rising steel demand from India’s infrastructure push.
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