Jammu And Kashmir: The Union Government has said that 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves have been found for the first time in India in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. Lithium is a chemical substance which is non-ferrous metal and is one of the key components of EV batteries.

Official statement by the Ministry of Mines

According to the Ministry of Mines, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) for the first time has established Lithium inferred resources (G3) of 5.9 million tonnes in the Salal-Haimana area of the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.

51 mineral blocks including Lithium and Gold were handed over to respective state governments, the mining ministry said.

Further, the ministry added, “Out of these 51 mineral blocks, 5 blocks pertain to gold and other blocks pertain to commodities like potash, molybdenum, base metals etc. spread across 11 states of Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.”

The mineral blocks were prepared based on the work carried out by the GSI from field seasons 2018-19 to date. Moreover, 17 reports of Coal and Lignite with a total resource of 7897 million tonnes were also handed over to the Ministry of Coal.

During the meeting, seven Publications on different themes and intervention areas in which GSI operates were also released.

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‘Annual Programme for the ensuing Field Season 2023-24’

Taking notes from the discussion, the ministry said, “The proposed Annual Programme for the ensuing Field Season 2023-24 was presented and discussed during the meeting. During the ensuing year 2023-24, GSI is taking up 966 programmes comprising 318 mineral exploration projects including 12 marine mineral investigation projects.”

The GSI has formulated 115 projects on strategic and critical minerals and 16 projects on fertiliser minerals.

“55 programmes on geoinformatics, 140 programmes on fundamental and multidisciplinary geosciences, and 155 programs for training and institutional capacity building have also been taken up,” it stated.