Indian Resource Discovery to Boost its Self-Reliance in Aerospace and Defense3-mins read

Recent Discovery to Boost India’s Potential as an Industrial Power

India recently made a discovery that could lead to a great change in a number of different sectors in the country. Specifically, scientists at the research institute in India’s Hyderabad recently uncovered a deposit of light rare earth elements (REE) in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The deposit was found approximately 2,000 km south of New Delhi, the nation’s capital. This is an extremely meaningful discovery for the country because all the elements discovered are essential components for making the majority of modern electronic devices and medical technology. Apart from that, they are also used in the aerospace industry, automotive industry, renewable energy, and even defense industry.

The National Geophysical Research Institute, based in Hyderabad, discovered the elements in question. They include ceriate, columbite, allanite, thorite, tantalite, zircon, apatite, pyrochlore euxenite, monazite, and fluorite.

Given their usage in a number of mentioned industries and sectors, this discovery is of great importance for India. It means that the country will be able to boost its clean energy, aerospace, defense, and other sectors without having to import these materials moving forward. In other words, the country could become more self-reliant, not to mention that this could mean a great boost for its commodities sector.

Scientists will now conduct a more thorough examination

Rare earths is an umbrella term that includes 15 elements in the periodic table’s lanthanide and actinide series. They were discovered quite accidentally, as the NGRI scientists decided to conduct a survey for the local non-traditional rocks, like syenites. Along the way, they made this massive discovery that could greatly impact all of the mentioned industries and sectors, and potentially the country’s entire economy.

One of the scientists from NGRI, PV Sunder Raju, commented on the discovery by saying that

“Zircon of varying shapes was observed in Reddypalle and Peddavadaguru villages. The monazite grains showed high-order multiple colors with radial cracks within grains, suggestive of the presence of radioactive elements.”

Raju further explained that the next step will be to conduct more feasibility studies, which will require deep drilling in order to learn more about the elements, the size of the deposit, and alike. Perhaps, along the way, the scientists might even uncover more elements hiding below the surface that were not detected in the original finding.

Regardless of whether they find something else or not, the deposit will have a big effect on India’s self-reliance. However, the interesting thing is that this was not the country’s first big discovery of rare elements this year. Only two months earlier, in February 2023, the country also discovered 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir.

Lithium is a non-ferrous metal, and one of the crucial components in making batteries for electric cars.