News Excerpt:

The Indian Bureau of Mines will determine the Average Sale Price (ASP) of critical and strategic minerals.

About the news:

• The Ministry of Mines is aiming to standardise and streamline the ASP calculation method for a range of strategic minerals.
• Strategic minerals include beryllium, cadmium, gallium, indium, rhenium, selenium, tantalum, tellurium, titanium, tungsten, and vanadium.

Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM):

• It is a multi-disciplinary government advisory body established under the Department of Mines, Ministry of Mines, in 1948.

• It has 4 Zonal & 13 Regional offices.

• The primary mission of IBM is to promote systematic and scientific development of mineral resources of the country (both onshore and offshore), through regulatory inspections of the mines, approval of mining plans and environment management plans to ensure minimal adverse impact on environment.
• It is engaged in protection of environment in mines other than coal, petroleum & natural gas, atomic minerals and minor minerals.

Critical minerals:

• These are those minerals that are essential for economic development and national security, the lack of availability of these minerals or concentration of extraction or processing in a few geographical locations may lead to supply chain vulnerabilities.
• The Ministry of Mines has recently unveiled a report on "Critical Minerals for India". It has identified a set of 30 critical minerals.
• India has set up KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Limited), a joint venture of three PSUs, to ensure a consistent supply of critical minerals to the Indian domestic market.