- GS TIMES STAFF
The Union Cabinet on June 2, 2021 approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed between the Ministry of Mines, Government of India and the Secretariat of Mining Policy of the Ministry of Productive Development of the Argentina.
- The MoU will provide an institutional mechanism for cooperation in the field of Mineral Resources.
- The objectives of the MoU are to strengthen the activities involved like cooperation for encouraging minerals exploration and development, including extraction, mining and beneficiation of lithium.
About Lithium
- Lithium is a key element for new technologies and finds its use in ceramics, glass, telecommunication and aerospace industries.
- The well-known uses of Lithium are in Lithium ion batteries, lubricating grease, high energy additive to rocket propellants, optical modulators for mobile phones and as convertor to tritium used as a raw material for thermonuclear reactions i.e. fusion.
- Australia is by far the world’s top producer of lithium, with an output of 42,000 tonnes in 2019. Chile is at second position. While it is the world’s top producer, Australia has only the fifth-largest known reserves of lithium in the world.
- Chile, Argentina and Bolivia are called as South America’s “lithium triangle”.
- The thermonuclear application makes Lithium as “Prescribed substance” under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 which permits AMD for exploration of Lithium in various geological domains of the country.
- According to the Indian Government, the preliminary surveys on surface and limited subsurface by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) have shown presence of Lithium resources of 1,600 tonnes (inferred category) in the pegmatites of Marlagalla – Allapatna area, Mandya district, Karnataka.
