BHUBANESWAR: With rapid adoption of green energy throughout the world, it is necessary for the countries like India to ensure supply of rare earth elements which are extracted from minor resources for different usages, NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat said.
Addressing the platinum jubilee celebration of IREL (India) Ltd (formerly Indian Rare Earths Limited), he said rare earth materials are considered the 24th century materials and India has a huge potential to attract investment in the minor resources sector.
"As green energy is rapidly taking over the oil dominance, we need to make availability of rare earth elements that are being used in many sectors. The IREL has developed many technologies that can be used to reduce carbon footprint," he said.
CMD of IREL (India) Ltd and president of Rare Earths Association of India (REAI) D Singh underlined the importance of rare earth elements and stressed the capacity expansion.
"Rare earth plays an important role in clean and renewable energy production process. We will expand our capacity to three times to have qualitative superiority," he said.
Stating that India has around six per cent of the world's rare earth resources, Additional Secretary of NSCS Dr Ram Mohan said, it produces only two per cent of the rare earth oxides manufactured globally.
There is a huge potential of economic and strategic exploitation of the resources for downstream products, he added.
Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy KN Vyas said IREL is setting up India's first-of-its-kind Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) plant at Vizag that will produce Samarium Cobalt (SmCo).
Director of Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) AK Mohanty highlighted that the rare earth magnets developed in the country not only make India self reliant and fulfil the need of the country but also open the scope for export to other countries.
"Those are permanent magnets with high energy density and high magnetic energy and can be used in various sectors, including atomic energy setup," he said.
IREL monograph and a souvenir on Rare Earths Road Map for Energy Security of Self Reliant India (REES-2021) were released on this occasion. Lifetime achievement award was handed over to Dr M PL Reddy, a retired chief scientist of CSIR-NIIST for his contribution to the field of rare earth research.