Big Boost To Made In India EV Batteries, 14,000 Tonne Lithium Reserves Discovered In Mandya

Researchers at the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) have discovered lithium reserves in Karnataka’s Mandya, which may boost local manufacturing of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries.

It is estimated that around 14,000 tonnes of lithium reserves are present in the small patch of land in southern Karnataka.

"The present data provides a total estimation of available Li2O as about 30,300 tonnes over an area of 0.5 km x 5 km, which works out to about 14,100 tonnes of lithium metal," said N Munichandraiah, Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Science and an expert on battery technologies.

However this lithium find pales in comparison to countries like Chile, Australia and Argentina who have much larger reserves. India currently imports most of its lithium needs and imports of lithium batteries tripled from $384 million in FY17 to $1.2 billion in FY19.

Since India has not made much effort to explore local lithium reserves, it currently relies on mines located in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.