The Cabinet approves new royalty rates for four important minerals India News

This comes at a time when import restrictions imposed by China – which has a monopoly on the production of important and rare earth minerals – pose challenges to the global supply chain.

The Cabinet approved changing the mechanism for calculating the graphite royalty rate from a ton basis to a value basis. “Setting value-based graphite royalty rates will proportionately reflect the change in metal prices across grades,” the Cabinet said.

The royalty rate for graphite containing 80 percent fixed carbon is set at 2 percent of the average selling price (ASP), while graphite containing less than 80 percent fixed carbon will attract a royalty of 4 percent of the ASP.

Likewise, the royalty rates for cesium and rubidium are set at 2 percent of the retail price of the metal in question contained in the ore produced, while the royalty rate for zirconium is set at 1 percent of the retail price.

All four minerals are essential for high-tech applications and energy transmission.

While graphite is a critical component in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, zirconium is used in nuclear power because of its exceptional corrosion resistance. Cesium is mainly used in the high-tech electronic sector, especially in atomic clocks and positioning systems, and rubidium is used in the manufacture of specialized glasses used in fiber optics, communications systems, and night vision devices.

“The above-mentioned decision of the Union Cabinet will promote the auction of mineral blocks containing cesium, rubidium and zirconium, thereby opening up not only these minerals but also important minerals associated with them, such as lithium, tungsten, rhesus, niobium etc,” the government said.

At least nine blocks in the six tranche of important minerals auctions in September contained five blocks of graphite, two blocks of rubidium, and one block each of cesium and zirconium.