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.

Overview of Heavy Mineral Industry of India

India has an exceptional stretch of 6000 kilometres of coastline and hence one of the richest heavy mineral placers are situated on its shoreline. The beach sands of India are rich in minerals like garnet, zircon, ilmenite, rutile, monazite and some others. The minerals Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Garnet, Monazite and Sillimanite are found mainly in five states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra. 

According to Indian Bureau of Mines report of 2012, India produced as many as 89 minerals which included 4 fuel minerals, 11 metallic minerals, 52 non-metallic (industrial minerals) including ilmenite, rutile and zircon which were atomic minerals earlier and 22 minor minerals in 2011-12. 

As per industry estimates, India has over 500 million tonnes (MT) of Ilmenite reserves, which is used in making titanium metal and titanium di-oxide pigments, a critical raw material for making products such as paints, paper and plastic. 

One of the premier companies that indulge in heavy mineral mining is V.V. Mineral. They are India’s biggest mining, manufacturers and exporters of Garnet. They have been awarded as the ‘Number One Garnet Exporters’ of our country. They also undertake Zircon mining, Rutile mining and Ilmenite mining.