The most important lithium story in India is not a discovery. It is two failed auctions and what comes next.
In February 2023, the Geological Survey of India made a headline-generating announcement: inferred lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes had been identified in the Salal-Haimna block in Reasi district, Jammu and Kashmir. The figure was cited across clean energy briefings, investor presentations, and policy documents as evidence that India had a domestic path to lithium self-sufficiency.
Then came the auctions.
The first attempt, opened in November 2023 at the G3 level of exploration, failed to attract the minimum three bidders required to proceed to financial bidding. A second attempt was structured to allow a single bidder to win the block. That too was annulled. Zero bids.
In March 2026, the Ministry of Mines directed the Geological Survey of India to conduct a full re-exploration of the Reasi block, targeting at least the G2 level of confidence before another auction is attempted. The minister confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that the timeline for awarding mining rights remains uncertain.
Why India Lithium Mining at Reasi Stalled
The market’s reluctance was not arbitrary. Three structural problems drove the outcome.
First, the Reasi deposits are primarily clay-based. Clay-hosted lithium extraction has not yet been commercially proven at scale anywhere in the world. Investors bidding on an unproven deposit type, at a G3 confidence level, in a region with complex logistics, were being asked to absorb an unusual concentration of technical and commercial risk.
Second, no beneficiation study was made available to bidders. Without a feasibility assessment of how the lithium could actually be extracted and processed to battery-grade specification, the economic case could not be modelled. Institutional capital does not move without that data.
Third, global lithium prices fell sharply through 2024, reducing the urgency to lock in new supply. Critical mineral M&A declined 39% globally in 2024, with lithium projects among the most affected. The Reasi auction was competing against a softening market.
The re-exploration ordered in early 2026 is the right response. But reaching G2 confidence, completing a beneficiation study, preparing revised auction documents, and attracting qualified bidders is not a 12-month process. Domestic primary lithium from Reasi is realistically a second half of this decade story, and that is the optimistic reading.
Recycling Is Not the Backup Plan. It Is the Plan.
India’s EV transition, ACC PLI-backed cell manufacturing ambitions, and NCMM targets cannot wait for Reasi to come online. Battery-grade lithium carbonate, nickel sulphate, and cobalt sulphate are needed by domestic cell manufacturers now, and in growing volumes as gigafactory capacity commissions through 2026 and 2027.
The NCMM recognised this directly. Its INR 1,500 crore recycling incentive scheme, approved in September 2025, is structured precisely to fill the supply gap that primary mining cannot close in the near term. The scheme targets 270 kilotonnes of annual recycling capacity and 40 kilotonnes of annual critical mineral production. It exists because policymakers understand that recycling is not a secondary source. In the current window, it is the primary one.
At MiniMines, this is the argument we have been making since our first commercial operations. Our Hybrid Hydrometallurgy process recovers battery-grade materials from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries with no import dependency on raw materials or reagents. The feedstock exists today, in India’s growing fleet of spent two-wheelers, consumer electronics, and early-generation EVs.
India lithium mining will eventually deliver. Reasi will likely auction again, and with better data, it will attract serious capital. But the supply chain India needs before 2030 will be built from recycled material, not from the ground.
