1. “India currently relies heavily on imports for its critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel—the backbone of the national EV and renewable transition. From a macroeconomic perspective, how urgent is the shift toward domestic secondary sourcing (‘urban mining’), and what happens to India’s clean-energy goals if we do not secure control over these supply chains?”
From a strategic point of view, this is becoming extremely important for India. We are investing heavily in electric mobility, renewable energy but the mineral supply chain for these sectors are import dependent.
The challenge is that mining and refining takes time as we have to secure mining resources, capital and India does not have the resources needed domestically. This is why secondary sourcing is important as these materials are ready for recovery immediately when a battery reaches its end of life.
If India does not build this capability, we will continue depending on external supply chains, leaving domestic manufacturers to the mercy of global price fluctuations, export restrictions and geopolitical vicissitudes. Recycling will not eliminate the need for mining or imports but it will reduce the dependence and give India an actual opportunity to build a domestic materials industry around the batteries and electronics it consumes already.

2. ” At Metastable Materials, we look at battery recycling as a materials recovery and refining exercise, not just waste management. A lithium battery contains several valuable materials including lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and these materials are combined in different ways to make the battery work and when the battery’s useful life is over, these materials do not lose their value.

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