As lithium turns into the new oil for its use in batteries for everything from EVs to smartphones, the mineral's discovery in Kashmir naturally made headlines. But behind that is also the fact that after it was first spotted in 1999, it took India decades to go from the reconnaissance stage to the actual search.
Now scientists in Hyderabad have detected the presence of multiple rare earth minerals in Andhra Pradesh's Ananthapur district.
Chance for India to become manufacturing hub
Once mined, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, yttrium, and five others can be used for medical equipment, as well as aerospace and defence manufacturing.
The presence of the enriched light rate earth minerals was spotted after analysing whole rocks.
These elements are already essential components for several electronic devices and are used for clean energy generation as well.
Everything from air travel to clean energy depends on this
They are used for making permanent magnets, which are integrated into wind turbines, jet aircraft, TV sets and computers among others.
As the world goes green, Europe alone will require 26 times the amount of rare earth minerals compared to the present demand.
Now that the traces have been detected, scientists will have to drill for at least 1 kilometer, to be certain about the consistency of rare earth minerals in the region.
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