India announces discovery of large deposit of lithium, used in electric car batteries and mobile phones

Colombo (News 1st) - An enormous deposit of Lithium, the rare mineral crucial for the production of lithium batteries used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars, has been discovered in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, India's Ministry of Mines announced Thursday (9th).

The deposit in the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi District was discovered by the Geological Survey of India and has been estimated at 5.9 metric tonnes. The discovery is likely to assist India's target of changing its car fleet to 30% electric cars by 2030.

The world's lithium has thus far been mainly mined in Australia, Argentina and Chile. China recently signed a deal to begin mining the world's largest deposit of lithium in Bolivia, estimated at 21 metric tonnes or four times the one discovered in India.

India had previously discovered a smaller deposit of lithium in the southern state of Karnataka.