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India's rare earth metals, ores reserves stand at 491 mt

India’s rare earth resources as on date is estimated at 491.12 million tons (mt) as estimated by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), informed Union Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy.

“AMD a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is carrying out exploration and augmentation of rare earth group elements along coastal/ inland/ riverine placer sands, as well as in hard rock terrains in several potential geological domains in the country,” the minister said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

The total reserve of rare earth metals and ores includes around 7.23 mt of in-situ rare Earth elements oxide (REO) contained in 13.15 mt of monazite (a mineral of Thorium (around 10 percent ThO2) and rare earths (around 55 percent REO)] occurring in coastal beach, teri/ red sand and inland alluvium in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

Further, 129 mt of in-situ REO resources have been identified in hard rocks in Gujarat and Rajasthan. As per DAE, mining is feasible for these resources.

Additionally, GSI has augmented 482.6 Mt resources of REE ore at various cut-off grades in 34 exploration projects.