India Eyes Rare Earth and Copper Assets in Australia Amid Supply Crunch

New Delhi, July 8: India is actively pursuing strategic partnerships with Australia to secure vital rare earth minerals and copper assets. This move comes as global supply chains face increasing strain due to ongoing export restrictions imposed by China, particularly impacting sectors reliant on rare earth magnets.

Malini Dutt, Trade and Investment Commissioner of the New South Wales Government, confirmed these discussions on the sidelines of India Energy Storage Week (IESW) 2025 in New Delhi. “They (India and Australia) are talking about rare earth, and there are blocks available. So there is an opportunity for India to take an early-stage block and have tie-ups with a few companies,” Dutt stated.

Rising Interest in Copper Assets

Beyond rare earth minerals, Indian public sector undertakings (PSUs) and private players are showing considerable interest in Australia’s copper mining sector.

“There is a lot of interest around copper as well, given some of the conversations I have had. The interest is both from the private sector and a PSU, which is quite on the hunt for copper blocks,” Dutt noted. She highlighted India’s escalating copper demand, pointing to existing smelting capacity and significant investments, such as those made by the Adani Group, as key drivers for this interest. India’s copper imports rose by 4% to 1.2 million metric tonnes in fiscal year 2025, with demand projected to climb to 3-3.3 million metric tonnes by 2030 and 8.9-9.8 million metric tonnes by 2047.

The Adani Group, through its subsidiary Kutch Copper Ltd (KCL), is setting up a greenfield copper refinery project in Mundra, Gujarat, with a planned capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum in two phases. The first phase, with a capacity of 0.5 million tonnes, is already operational. This large-scale investment underscores India’s growing need for copper, which is crucial for the energy transition, including electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure, solar photovoltaics (PV), wind energy, and batteries.

China’s Dominance Spurs Urgency

This strategic push by India is a direct response to China’s formidable control over global critical mineral supply chains. China currently accounts for over 90% of global rare earth magnet processing capacity and has recently imposed export restrictions on certain rare earth elements. These restrictions have raised significant concerns across India’s automotive, white goods, and clean energy industries, which depend on critical rare earth components such as samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and lutetium.

These materials are indispensable for a wide range of advanced technologies, including electric motors, braking systems, smartphones, advanced displays, and even sophisticated defence applications like missile technologies and radar systems. China’s recent export controls on specific rare earth elements and magnets, while not a complete ban, require exporters to obtain licenses and set strict monthly quotas, leading to delays and uncertainty in the supply process.

Future Ahead

As the global race for strategic minerals intensifies, India’s pivot towards Australia, a significant producer of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths, could prove pivotal in securing its technological and energy future, reducing its reliance on a single dominant supplier. The two countries have already been strengthening their cooperation on critical minerals, including an interim free trade agreement signed in July 2023, which aimed to deepen collaboration in critical minerals and their processing, and the establishment of the Australia-India Critical Minerals Research Hub.

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