Future of Critical Mineral Security Lies in Recycling, Not Mining
Mining will always be necessary to meet virgin material demand but mineral security is no longer the sole responsibility of mining. With a strong recycling system, once mined can be recycled indefinitely.
October 29, 2025. By News Bureau
Yet, as global demand is at an all-time high for these elements, there is a complete dependence on raw extraction of these minerals, which is often energy intensive, slow and geographically concentrated. For India especially, the future of mineral security will be contingent on evolving from extraction led to extract plus recovery. Recycling offers a complementary path of tapping urban reserves of spent batteries that hold high concentration of these minerals. True mineral security will require us to recover what we have already mined, and not expand mines endlessly.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global lithium demand is projected to grow sixfold by 2035 and nickel and cobalt could triple. India’s electric mobility and renewable targets will require 500GWh of battery capacity over the next decade, which itself translates into thousands of tonnes of lithium, nickel and cobalt annually. Scaling mining to meet the surging demand is impractical. Mining projects take a decade or more to mature and refining is concentrated abroad. Recycling bridges potential supply and timing gaps and contributes almost immediately and shortens the supply chain and mitigates import dependency.
While we speak of recycling supporting critical minerals supply, often a question is raised in industry circles whether recycled lithium and metals can match the quality of virgin minerals. To that there is evidence that the recycled minerals can match and in some cases exceed the quality of virgin minerals. Modern recycling methodologies are able to yield over 99 percent purity of lithium. Comparatively, mined lithium achieves 50 to 70 percent recovery in brine operations and demands enormous water and energy, post which it requires extensive refining. Therefore performance parity between recycled and virgin materials is no longer theoretical. Recycled lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) and nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cathodes have shown equivalent energy density and cycle life proven by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Tesla. The benchmark purity for lithium carbonate used in EV grade cathodes is 99.5 percent. Recycling technologies can match or exceed this benchmark as proven by refining giants like Redwood materials, Umicore, and so on.
When it comes to the environmental argument, which is central for the energy transition, recycling critical minerals delivers strong environmental dividends. Producing lithium via recycling methods emits 75 percent less carbon dioxide and more than 50 times less water, studies suggest. For other metals, the benefits are well established. Recycling aluminium can save over 90 percent of the energy as compared to smelting, recycled copper uses over 70 percent less energy than primary smelting. Recycling cobalt and nickel also has significant energy and water reductions as analysed through lifecycle assessments, but exact figures differ by feedstock. Studies show energy reductions of 40 to 60 percent for cobalt in many cases recycling also enables value creation locally. It builds industrial clusters around collection, process and refining, creates skilled and unskilled jobs, shortens supply chains and retains foreign exchange.
In India, a strong policy structure is being put in place to connect recycling with the national mineral strategy. The battery waste management rules 2022 established extended producer responsibility, enforcing recovery targets. The upcoming national critical minerals mission integrates resource mapping with downstream value chain planning. Incentives under the critical minerals scheme for recycling are set to further accelerate technology deployment for refining recycled materials and turn India's recycling ecosystem into a pillar of supply security.
Mining will always be necessary to meet virgin material demand but mineral security is no longer the sole responsibility of mining. With a strong recycling system, once mined can be recycled indefinitely. The mined critical minerals’ life extends through recycling, reducing environmental strain and import dependence. The future mineral economy should view extraction as the beginning of a loop, and its frequency should be reduced through better material stewardship.
Circularity begins at design. Chemistry standardisation along with battery passports for history of the batteries and mandating recycled content in new products will further help recycling to add even higher value to the mineral supply chain. Collaboration between OEMs, cell manufacturers and recyclers can make disassembly, material separation viable at scale. Design for recycling will ensure that materials stay in productive use.
Debate over recycled material being good enough when compared to mined minerals has already been settled. For mineral security, what remains is scaling recycling into national mineral planning, where India is making strides already. The future of mineral security will belong to nations that extract responsibly, recover relentlessly and refine domestically. Critical mineral security now is a question of not how much we can mine but how much we can keep in circulation after mining, turning today’s waste into tomorrow’s independence.
- Manikumar Uppala, Co-Founder and Chief of Industrial Engineering, Metastable Materials
please contact: contact@energetica-india.net.
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