Boost to the Rare Earth Sector

With an endeavour to boost Rare Earths refining and further downstream activities within the Country, IREL (India) Limited renewed its agreement with M/s. Toyotsu Rare Earths (India) Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan for cooperation on Rare Earths the other day. This agreement is an offshoot of the India-Japan Joint Statement issued in December 2011 followed by the Memorandum between Department of Atomic Energy and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan in November 2012.

Extraction of Rare Earths is a complex, long drawn and expensive process as it is often associated with radioactivity and hence only three to four countries are involved in its production world over and India is one of them. Rare Earth is produced at the Rare Earth Extraction Plant of IREL located in Ganjam district, Odisha. Rare Earths play catalytic role for providing improved performance of core functional material for many applications such as green technologies, EVs, defence & strategic sector, consumer electronics, etc.