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Ministry of Mines will host the Mineral Exploration Hackathon and Critical Mineral Roadshow at Begumpet in Hyderabad on Saturday (July 20). 

The initiative aims to enhance mineral prognostication using globally practised state-of-the-art techniques. Participants will delve into the interpretation and modelling of geophysical data, integration of multiple data sets, and the application of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the Ministry said on Friday.

Union Minister of Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy will launch the National District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Portal at the event. This would be a centralised platform to gather the information on district mineral foundations across the country. The portal would facilitate access to DMF data and track the developments that are taking place in this sector.

The minister will also announce the names of the preferred bidders for the tranche II & III blocks of the e-auction of critical and strategic minerals that was launched on February 29.

The event will be followed by a roadshow on tranche IV of the e-auction of Critical and Strategic Mineral Blocks, launched vide NIT dated June 24, 2024. The purpose of this roadshow is to increase industry engagement and to make the potential bidders familiarise with the e-auction process being conducted by the Ministry of Mines, the official statement added.

Critical minerals such as lithium, chromium, nickel, graphite, cobalt, titanium and rare earth elements are essential raw materials for sectors like electronics, electric vehicles, renewable energy, defence and high-tech telecommunications.

Currently, the extraction of critical minerals is dominated by a few countries such as China which makes the supply chain vulnerable to geopolitical uncertainties.

India is viewed as part of the alternative supply chain that needs to be developed to break China’s dominance in this crucial segment.

The Narendra Modi government has accelerated the exploration of critical minerals in India over the last two years as a result of which, over 100 critical mineral blocks are now in the pipeline and will be put up for auction to mining companies.

An international summit was also held in Delhi at the end of April this year to woo foreign investors with details of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives being offered to push growth in the sunrise sector.