Why Monazite Is Importance For India

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The only commercial rare earth mineral India imports is Monazite. Leaving India in a particular position of leading in this type of mining. RN Patra, Chairman & Managing Director believes countries having rare earth resources are possessive regarding its free export and exploration by outsiders and as such acquiring these mineral assets overseas is a challenging task and needs support of the government for such acquisitions.

India has not made any progress and development in the field of monazite mining. The plan of buying mines in foreign countries too has come to a stand-still. The public sector has not sold radioactive Monazite mined in the last 10 years in Orissa.

Another reason for its lack of growth is that the rare earth industry in India is not a part of the non-proliferation treaty, making it harder for access in the global rare earth’s industry.

Depending on China for imports clearly is not moving in the right direction. Imports are costly as the supply of rare earth minerals is limited, with the Red State using exports of the rare earth mineral as a geopolitical tool. The profit earned in the year 2013 was half of what it was in the year 2008. This shows how poorly the industry is performing.

Other industries related rare earth mining is the heavy mineral mining industry. The key players are VV Mineral in Tamil Nadu owned by S. Vaikundarajan. They mainly deal with Zircon mining, Rutile mining, Garnet mining and Ilmenite mining.