Japan in talks with India to explore critical minerals

NEW DELHI Japan ​is in talks with India to  explore rare earth deposits in Rajasthan. Tokyo seeks to reduce reliance on China for supplies critical to magnet manufacturing.

Last month, India's Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy said three hard rock rare earth deposits containing 1.29 million metric ​tons of rare earth oxides had been identified in Rajasthan and Gujarat state in western India.

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Following ​on a preliminary pact on critical minerals that Japan and India signed last year, ⁠Tokyo has expressed interest in the Rajasthan deposits and plans to send experts to the site, said ​the sources, who are directly involved in the decision-making. They declined to be named as the deliberations were ​not public.

They did not say when those experts were due to arrive.

In Rajasthan, the Japanese government would be looking to provide technology for extraction as well as funding in exchange for a stable offtake of rare earths to be taken to ​Japan, the sources said, adding that hard rock deposits required extraction techniques that India does not have currently.