India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee advocates increased financial backing, operational capacity, and domestic value chains for Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, aiming to bolster global mineral acquisitions amid fierce competition.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel has urged the government to give Khanij Bidesh India Ltd, or KABIL, a stronger financial and operational foundation as New Delhi pushes to secure supplies of critical minerals from overseas, according to a report tabled this week.
In its study, “KABIL: India’s quest for Global Critical Minerals”, the committee said the venture cannot rely on foreign asset purchases alone. It argued that the company needs deeper capital support, a larger and more specialised workforce, faster approvals and a clearer route to profitability if it is to compete effectively in a market dominated by intense global competition for mineral assets.
KABIL was set up as a joint venture of National Aluminium Co, Hindustan Copper Ltd and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Ltd under the Ministry of Mines to secure supplies of strategic minerals. The panel said the company should be backed by a long-term financial plan, including a timetable for when overseas projects are expected to start generating revenue. It also called for periodic audits by institutions such as Niti Aayog, the Comptroller and Auditor General or an independent third-party auditor.
The committee highlighted manpower shortages and said KABIL should be staffed with expertise in technical, commercial and legal work. It also recommended a more formal coordination structure inside the Ministry of Mines, including a dedicated project monitoring and coordination cell, so decisions can be taken more quickly and opportunities are not lost to delays. The panel said the country needs an “institutionalized and time bound coordination framework to facilitate faster decision making and effective execution”.
Beyond acquisition, the report placed heavy emphasis on processing, refining and recycling inside India. It said the strategic value of critical minerals lies downstream, where raw materials are turned into usable inputs and higher-value products. The committee urged an integrated value-chain plan covering exploration, mining, beneficiation, refining, chemical processing, recycling and recovery, along with targets for extracting minerals from used batteries, electronic waste and industrial scrap. It added that success abroad will depend on domestic demand, long-term offtake agreements and stronger market linkages at home.
The panel also backed wider private-sector participation in overseas mineral ventures and asked the government to create financing and risk-sharing tools to support it. For rare earths, it pressed KABIL to build a dedicated acquisition pipeline, with particular focus on magnetic rare earths such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. More broadly, the committee said India should make better use of bilateral and multilateral critical-mineral platforms for asset identification, co-financing and technology transfer.
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