Govt issues guidelines for setting up Ecellence centres under Critical Mineral Mission

By  News On Air   Apr 16, 2025

The Ministry of Mines has issued guidelines for the setting up of Centres of Excellence (CoE) under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). This is in pursuance to a key pillar of the Mission, which is research and technology development in critical minerals.

Critical raw materials form the crucial supply chain for emerging sectors of clean energy and mobility transition, in addition to advanced technology and strategic sectors like electronics, defence and space.

The Ministry, in a statement, said that in order to develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies in an end-to-end systems approach, it is essential to conduct research and development so as to reach higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). The Centres of Excellence will identify, develop and implement extraction process and beneficiation technologies for a host of critical minerals from multiple sources and conduct directed research and development.

Under this new initiative, reputed academic and R&D institutions, as per eligibility prescribed, will be evaluated and recognized as CoEs for R&D in critical minerals. CoEs will undertake innovative and transformational research to strengthen and advance the nation’s science and technology capability in the area of critical minerals.

CoEs will aim at undertaking cutting edge research and promoting inter and multi-disciplinary approaches to problem-solving in critical minerals domain.