India, Russia deepen rare earths ties amid Quad critical minerals push

New Delhi: India and Russia have taken concrete steps to collaborate on the extraction and processing of rare earths at a time when New Delhi is also deepening critical minerals cooperation with its Quad partners.

A memorandum of understanding was signed last week between JSC Giredmet, part of Russian nuclear major Rosatom’s scientific division, and India’s Nexon Geochem Pvt Ltd for joint research and development of technologies for deep processing of raw materials containing rare and rare earth metals, according to a Rosatom statement.

The two sides plan to implement full-cycle projects spanning the production of high-purity metals and compounds to manufacturing materials for the electronics, chemical and nuclear industries, Rosatom said.

Separately, JSC Giredmet signed a letter of intent with TEXMiN (Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation), part of Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), or IIT-ISM.

The agreement provides for joint research and development of technologies for producing neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) rare earth permanent magnets, including the full metallurgical cycle and pilot validation of Giredmet technologies, according to the statement.

Global demand for critical minerals is rising rapidly even as supply chains and processing capacities remain unevenly distributed across regions, creating incentives for countries to build long-term industrial partnerships and diversify cooperation mechanisms, said Andrey Podchufavrov, head of the economic department at the Trade Representation of Russia in India.