Regarding EV components, India does not have enough reserves of the minerals required. At Mini Mines, the winners of the Clean Energy and Climate Change category have found a solution to extract these minerals from discarded batteries
Anupam Kumar | 28
Founder-CEO, Mini Mines
Arvind Bhardwaj | 28
Founder-CTO, Mini Mines
Good things are not cheap. Take electric vehicles (EV) for example. The largest cost component of an EV is its lithium-ion battery. India has little or no reserves of lithium ore and is entirely dependent on imports. Nickel and cobalt, the two other lithium-ion battery components of which India has adequate reserves, are, however, expensive to mine and leave a high ecological footprint.
Spent batteries of EVs, mobile phones, and laptops currently stack up on top of an already gargantuan e-waste mountain in India. If lithium can be extracted here, and nickel and cobalt can be procured without traditional mining, it could mitigate some problems—batteries can become cheaper because less lithium is being imported; less reliance on mining means fewer carbon emissions and less water waste.
(This story appears in the 23 February, 2024 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)