Highlights

• India is building a distributed rare earth recycling ecosystem through operational pilots across various sectors, including:
  • Plastic-to-fuel
  • PCB recycling
  • Battery extraction
  • Five NdPr metal and magnet facilities
• This effort lays the foundation for supply chain independence.
• Five pilot-scale facilities from C-MET Hyderabad to BARC/IREL demonstrate India's prototype midstream capability in:
  • Nd-Pr metal extraction
• • NdFeB magnet production
• • This signals intent to reduce dependence on China.
• India's recycling-first model offers OEMs a potential third-pole NdFeB source, while also avoiding mining permitting friction. However, scale-up timelines, capacity targets, and ore sourcing strategy remain unclear.

---

India rarely announces industrial revolutions with fireworks. Instead, it advances through pilots, prototypes, and slow accretion of capability. A new parliamentary briefing from the Ministry of Science & Technology reveals a pattern worth investor attention: India is assembling a distributed ecosystem for non-organic waste recycling and early-stage rare earth recovery—one small pilot at a time.

This is not a single mine, nor a bold JV. It is foundation-building, and foundations matter most in geopolitics and supply-chain security.

A Patchwork That Looks Suspiciously Like a Plan

Government disclosures show an unusual breadth of initiatives:

• Plastic-to-fuel conversion (ICT Mumbai; Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya)
• PCB recycling for metals (IIT Madras)
• Battery-material extraction (IISER Tirupati; CSIR-NML)
• LFP battery recycling (CSIR-NML Jamshedpur)
• Industrial by-product use in road construction
• A national e-waste R&D hub (MeitY’s CoE at C-MET Hyderabad)

These are operational or commissioned pilots—not conceptual proposals. They form the early scaffolding of a circular-economy model that could reinforce India’s future position in critical minerals.

The Rare Earths Reveal: Early but Real Capacity Build-Out

The briefing quietly lists five pilot-scale NdPr metal, alloy, and magnet facilities, an unmistakable signal:

1. C-MET Hyderabad – Nd, Pr metals, NdFeB alloy & magnets
2. ARCI Hyderabad – Near-net-shape NdFeB magnet plant
3. MAM Pvt. Ltd. – Domestic NdFeB manufacturing capability
4. Ashvini Rare Earths – TRL-7 Nd-Pr metal extraction
5. BARC / IREL Theme Park – Pilot Nd/Pr production

This is not a coincidence. It is a prototype midstream for an India that aims to reduce dependence on China while nurturing private magnet-makers in parallel.

India is not yet a commercial-scale REE producer, but the architecture is emerging.

Missing Pieces—and Why They Matter

Investors should note the blind spots:

• No production scale-up timelines
• No national magnet-capacity targets
• No clarity on ore sourcing (India mines almost no REEs)
• No pilot performance data on SX or metallization

Government releases rarely mention bottlenecks, and this one is no exception.

Yet the direction is unmistakable: India is attempting to join the rare-earths club through recycling, reprocessing, and early downstream capability.

Investor Lens: The Strategic Implications

• OEMs may eventually gain a third-pole NdFeB source.
• Miners should watch India’s recycling-first model—cheaper, faster, lower-permitting friction.
• U.S. and EU policymakers should treat this as another reminder that REE competition is widening—not narrowing.

India is not challenging China today.

But it is quietly preparing to matter tomorrow.

Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India — Dec. 10, 2025

© 2025 Rare Earth Exchanges™ – Accelerating Transparency, Accuracy, and Insight Across the Rare Earth & Critical Minerals Supply Chain.