India, US strike critical minerals deal: What’s in it, why does it matter?

India and the United States have signed a framework agreement to secure supplies of critical minerals and rare earths, including their mining and processing, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the US embassy in India.

Tuesday’s deal was finalised between Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New Delhi during Rubio’s four-day trip to India.

Rubio spent a few days in India before a meeting of foreign ministers from the informal Quad security forum – comprising the US, Japan, Australia and India – in New Delhi on Tuesday, the final day of his trip. The Indian foreign ministry has also separately announced a critical minerals framework among the Quad countries.

Here is more about the deals announced and India’s critical minerals stockpile.

What are critical minerals, and why are they significant?

Critical minerals are nonfuel minerals used to manufacture batteries, clocks, wiring, military hardware, semiconductors and other technological products. The US describes them as “essential to the economic or national security of the US” and having “a supply chain vulnerable to disruption”.

Nickel, cobalt, lithium, aluminium and zinc are among the best-known critical minerals. For 12 critical minerals, the US relies entirely on imports. For 29 additional critical minerals, the US imports at least half of what it needs.

Critical minerals include 17 rare earth elements – 15 lanthanides (metallic elements) on the periodic table, plus scandium and yttrium. China has deposits of 12 of these. Rare earth metals have special magnetic properties and are necessary for the production of permanent magnets, used for industrial automation, electric vehicle motors, renewable energy generators, electronics and many medical devices. Rare earths are also used in key components of hardware that support semiconductors and artificial intelligence technologies.

The processing costs for rare earths are high, and mining them involves heavy use of chemicals that generate toxic waste.

Currently, China controls most of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals. China itself is home to 60 percent of these minerals and processes 90 percent of the world’s supply.

The US and other countries rely heavily on China for these minerals, and Washington, especially under President Donald Trump, has pushed to diversify US sourcing of these minerals to reduce reliance on China.

What is the US-India critical minerals framework?

The Indian foreign ministry said the framework seeks to deepen New Delhi and Washington’s cooperation across the critical minerals and rare earths supply chain, including mining, processing, recycling and related investments.

An Indian statement referred to a critical minerals conference in Washington, DC, in February that Jaishankar attended. In the same month, India joined the US‑led Pax Silica initiative on secure semiconductor and AI supply chains.

The US embassy also said a bilateral deal was reached on Tuesday. “Through this framework, the United States and India will engage in international efforts to protect sensitive supply chains from coercive market practices and reduce our collective vulnerability to single-source monopolies,” an embassy statement said.

The statements do not expand on specific terms of the framework deal or how the cooperation would take place.

“The deal matters for India because its ambitions for critical minerals development require financing, and secure offtake. They have significant potential in new mining developments that can become more feasible if they are locked into a wider geopolitical network on minerals,” Christopher Vandome, who leads the Chatham House Critical Minerals Initiative, told Al Jazeera.

“For the US, the deal is an important means of securing diversified supply and supporting partner nations that can reduce the dominance of China in these supply chains. But it is also a long-term strategic move to do a deal with India to prevent it from gaining significant market share and being able to exercise market dominance in the same way the Chinese have done.”

Which critical minerals does India have?

In July 2023, the Indian government released a list of 30 minerals that it described as critical: antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, platinum group elements, phosphorous, potash, rare earth elements, rhenium, silicon, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium and cadmium.

According to government sources, India has 13.15 million tonnes of monazite, a phosphate mineral that contains rare earth oxides, one of the main natural sources of rare earths. The Indian government estimated that the country’s monazite contains 7.23 million tonnes of rare earth oxides (REOs). By comparison, a US Geological Survey report estimated that China has an estimated 44 million tonnes of REOs in its reserves, almost half of the world’s known reserves.

The US International Trade Administration (ITA) said in a report this year that India currently produces only four critical minerals: copper, graphite, phosphorous and titanium. This is due to limited exploration and a lack of proper infrastructure and processing technology, the ITA said.

In India’s national budget for the financial year 2026-2027, which began on April 1, the government introduced a new policy measure to create “rare earth corridors” in the states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These would be hubs for mining and processing rare earth minerals, doing research and manufacturing high-performance rare earth magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and other advanced technologies.

What is the Quad critical minerals initiative?

A multilateral document released by the Indian foreign ministry detailed a framework expanding on key areas for cooperation among the Quad countries on critical minerals supply chains.

The document said Quad governments and private companies intend to mobilise up to $20bn for the initiative, using a mix of loans, guarantees, subsidies and long-term purchase agreements. The countries aim to channel this funding into mining, processing and recycling projects to make their critical mineral supply chains more resilient and less dependent on a few suppliers.

The Quad countries have also agreed to share information on good practices and technical approaches for permitting, licensing and other regulatory processes.

They also agreed to cooperate on recycling and recovery of critical minerals, including during processing, to strengthen supply chains and promote the recycling of critical minerals among Quad partners and “like‑minded” countries.

Which other countries has the US signed critical minerals deals with?

“Both the US and India have been exploring mineral assets around the world – for example, India has been looking at partnerships in South America, Africa and Australia, while the US has also been engaging in these regions,” Aditya Ramji, an energy and development economist at UC Davis’s Global South Center for Clean Transportation, told Al Jazeera.

In December, the US announced a $1.25bn investment in critical minerals mining at Reko Diq in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

“The bilateral deals between the US and Pakistan do not have any significant bearing on this deal with India,” Ramji said, adding that India is a strategic market that offers great demand for mineral‑intensive technologies, has strong technological capabilities, and is seen as a reliable trading partner globally. On that basis alone, the US-India framework agreement has clear value.

During the critical minerals meeting that the US hosted in February, it signed 11 critical minerals frameworks with Argentina, the Cook Islands, Ecuador, Guinea, Morocco, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan, the State Department said.

In April, the US announced up to $50m in equity investment to back the Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project in South Africa.

“Across different regions, including the Gulf, Africa, and Asia, the USA has done deals with seemingly competing nations. It shows that the USA is not taking sides in regional competition between states, but is pursuing a grander and longer-term vision for protecting minerals supply,” Vandome said.