What should India do to grab the opportunity for becoming an industrial hub like China, as Lithium found out at Jammu?

克什米尔发现了巨量的锂矿，印度应该怎样做才能抓住机会，成为像中国一样的工业中心？

In June 2019, 10 countries formed a forum called the Energy Resource Governance Initiative, or ERGI, to share their mining experiences and advise producer countries to discover and develop minerals like lithium, copper, and cobalt, with minimum impact on the environment. This is because the demand for these minerals will surge by 1000% in the next 20 to 30 years.

2019年6月，10个国家组成了一个名为 "能源资源治理倡议"（ERGI）的论坛，分享他们的采矿经验，并倡议生产国在开发锂、铜和钴等矿物的同时，尽量减少对环境的影响。这是因为在未来20至30年内，对这些矿物的需求将激增1000%。

If India has to grab this opportunity, we need to strengthen the supply chain of REE - rare earth elements - so that we get uninterrupted supply. Here Lithium is just one of the list of periodical elements, a set of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table–comprising 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium– are necessary components of more than 200 types of consumer products. So we need access to these minerals and elements that fuel our manufacturing hub. That’s not an easy task. It took China 30 years to build a monopoly in the minerals supply chain. So we need to explore how to bypass China’s dominance to get an uninterrupted supply.

如果印度要抓住这个机会，我们需要加强REE--稀土元素的供应链，以便我们获得持续的供应。而锂只是元素周期表中的一个元素，元素周期表中的17种化学元素--包括15种镧系元素加上钪和钇--是200多种消费品的必要组成部分。因此，我们需要获得这些矿物和元素，为我们的制造中心提供动力。这不是一项容易的任务。中国花了30年时间在矿物供应链中建立了垄断地位。所以我们需要探索如何绕过中国的主导地位，获得稳定的供应。

According to the World Bank May 2020 report titled, ‘Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition’, the production of minerals like graphite, lithium, and cobalt will need to be significantly ramped up by more than 450% by 2050 from 2018 levels to meet the demand from energy storage technologies. Any shortage of supply could impact the speed and scale of India’s industrial output.

根据世界银行2020年5月的报告，题为 "环保进程中的矿物：清洁能源转型的矿物强度》，到2050年，石墨、锂和钴等矿物的生产量将需要大幅提高到2018年的450%以上，以满足储能技术的需求。任何供应短缺都会影响印度工业产出的速度和规模。

China started production of REE in the 1960s. Several mines containing some of the highest-value REEs were discovered in the 1980s, and Beijing began investing heavily in the R&D of REE technologies. By 1989, it had averaged an increase in production by 40%; and by the 1990s, exports had increased rapidly. As China’s mining capacity expanded, REE producers in other countries began to shift their production lines to China to benefit from the country’s low labor costs and lax environmental regulations. China made use of it - demanded the exchange of technologies and prospered.

中国在20世纪60年代开始生产稀土元素。20世纪80年代发现了几个高价值的稀土元素的矿场，中国开始大力投资于稀土元素技术的研发。到1989年，它的产量平均增加了40%；到1990年代，出口迅速增加。随着中国采矿能力的扩大，其他国家的稀土元素生产商开始将其生产线转移到中国，以受益于中国的低劳动力成本和宽松的环境法规。中国利用了这一点--要求进行技术交流，并取得了繁荣。

Today China enjoys complete monopoly in trade and technology of rare elements and minerals. More recently, President also decreed that, by 2025, China would be independent of the rest of the world in 10 key high technologies, many of which are critically dependent upon REE, especially rare earth permanent magnets

今天，中国在稀土矿的贸易和开采技术方面享有完全的垄断地位。最近，中国还下令，到2025年，中国将在10项关键的高科技方面独立于世界其他国家，其中许多技术都严重依赖稀土元素，尤其是稀土永磁体
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


That …. fuels China’s industrial output and economy.

这....，为中国的工业产出和经济提供了动力。

What should India do?

印度应该怎么做？

India produces 95 minerals, including atomic, metallic, and non-metallic minerals that include “strategic” elements such as tin, cobalt, lithium, germanium, gallium, indium, niobium, beryllium, tantalum, tungsten, bismuth, selenium. We call it “strategic” because technologically it's difficult to extract, has limited supply potential, is subject to abstract mining regulations and legislative regimes, and entail environmental risks. So we need better plans and the latest technology to extract these minerals.

1.印度生产95种矿物，包括原子、金属和非金属矿物，其中包括 "战略 "元素，如锡、钴、锂、锗、镓、铟、铌、铍、钽、钨、铋、硒。我们称其为 "战略"元素是因为从技术上讲，它很难提取，供应有限，受到采矿法规和立法制度的制约，并带来环境风险。所以我们需要更好的计划和最新的技术来提取这些矿物。

In 2016, a report by the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), titled ‘Critical Non-Fuel Mineral Resources for India’s Manufacturing Sector: A Vision for 2030’, recommended that India should increase domestic exploration and mining as well as acquire the know-how in mineral processing technologies. It also recommended that India make the strategic acquisition of mines as well as diplomatic and trade agreements with other countries a priority. This ….is the need of the hour.

2.2016年，能源、环境和水理事会（CEEW）的一份报告，题为‘印度制造业的关键非燃料矿物资源：2030年的愿景"，建议印度应扩大国内的勘探和开采，并获得矿物加工技术方面的技术。它还建议印度把收购战略矿山以及与其他国家的外交和贸易协定作为优先事项。这....，是当务之急。

We need to build a few massive plants based on laboratory-scale technologies developed by BARC and other research institutes to encourage the production and consumption of REE within the country, and to facilitate the setting up of a value chain in the sector for producing permanent magnets.

3.我们需要在由金砖五国和其他研究机构开发的实验室规模的技术基础上建立一些大规模的工厂，以鼓励在国内生产和消费稀有金属，并推动在永磁体生产行业建立产业链。

We need massive reforms in the mining sector which will provide more incentives for mining activities. Apart from mining, we need strategic partnerships with like-minded countries to ensure diverse sources of uninterrupted supply. The 4 Indo-Pacific Quad members–comprising India, Japan, Australia, and the USA–are working together, and pooling resources to rapidly build collective self-reliance in the critical minerals sector. In June 2020, Australia and India reportedly inked a preliminary agreement for supplying critical minerals

4.我们需要在采矿行业进行大规模的改革，这将为采矿事业提供更多的激励。除采矿外，我们还需要与志同道合的国家建立战略伙伴关系，以确保多样化的不间断供应来源。由印度、日本、澳大利亚和美国组成的四个印太成员正在共同努力，汇集资源，在关键矿产领域迅速建立集体自力更生。据报道，2020年6月，澳大利亚和印度签署了一项关于供应关键矿物的初步协议。

India should aim at gaining knowledge and expertise in the processing and valorization of REE. Although India has the capability of separating and extracting dysprosium from monazite, it has not commercialized the process. By commercializing the separation process and supplying dysprosium of high purity (which is used for making neodymium magnets) to Japan, and eventually manufacturing neodymium magnets possible with Japanese cooperation, India can valorize its REE, and gain both economically and strategically.

印度应致力于获得稀有金属加工和价值化方面的知识和专长。尽管印度有能力分离和提取镝，但它还没有将该工艺商业化。通过将分离过程商业化并向日本提供高纯度的镝（用于制造钕磁铁），并最终在日本的合作下制造钕磁铁，印度可以对其稀有金属进行估值，并在经济和战略上获得收益。

Indian govt and the private sector will have to commit to large sums of capital to build the requisite facilities that can compete with the Chinese. China could flood the market with REE, which would cause prices to drop, and force companies to go bankrupt. Hence, there is a need for developing processing technology that sextively separates high-market-value minerals economically.

印度政府和私营部门将不得不投入大量的资金来建设基础设施，来和中国人竞争。中国可能会让稀土充斥市场，这将导致价格下跌，并迫使公司破产。因此，有必要开发加工技术，有选择地将高市场价值的矿物分离出来。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Supportive legislation for the REE sector is required to encourage investment. This would also ensure the accountability of the mining companies in various fields. Environmental issues will have to be dealt with sensitively. REE extraction produces hazardous by-products, like toxic gases and radioactive wastewater. More R&D will have to be developed to lessen, even eradicate, these environmental hurdles

为鼓励投资，需要为REE行业制定支持性立法。这也将明确采矿公司在各个领域的责任。环境问题必须得到敏感的处理。稀土开采会产生危险的副产品，如有毒气体和放射性废水。必须进行更多的研发，以减少、甚至消除污染。

The success of India lies in maximizing ongoing efforts to consolidate critical raw materials, and gain access to the entire processing and end-use technology to facilitate manufacturing and industrial output. We also need to impose international regulatory mechanisms to ensure affordability and open access to the same

印度的成功在于最大限度地利用整合关键原材料，并获得整个加工和应用技术，以提高工业产出。我们还需要实施国际监管机制，以确保负担得起且能够开放使用这些材料。