CSIR-IMMT strengthens industry partnerships with Engineers India Limited and LOHUM to accelerate indigenous critical minerals technologies
BY Tapaswini Sahoo
Bhubaneswar, July 24 : CSIR–Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT), Bhubaneswar, signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Engineers India Limited (EIL) and LOHUM on 23 July 2026, marking two strategic collaborations aimed at advancing indigenous technologies for critical minerals and accelerating their translation from laboratory research to industrial deployment.
Critical minerals are becoming increasingly important for electric mobility, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, electronics and strategic sectors. As India expands domestic capabilities in these areas, the development of indigenous technologies for extraction, refining, metal production and recycling has assumed national importance. CSIR-IMMT has been actively contributing to this technological ecosystem by developing processes for critical minerals from primary resources, industrial residues and secondary resources. In recent years, CSIR-IMMT has invested in pilot scale infrastructure for the scale up of critical mineral related technologies, particularly REE extraction and processing. CSIR-IMMT also hosts the Centre of Excellence on Critical Minerals under the National Centre for Minerals and Materials (NCMM), which brings together academia, R&D laboratories, and industry to scale-up indigenous technologies.
The MoU with Engineers India Limited (EIL) complements this effort by providing an engineering pathway for scaling laboratory-developed technologies to industrial implementation.The MoU was signed by Shri Rajiv Agarwal, Director (Technical), EIL, and Dr Ramanuj Narayan, Director, CSIR-IMMT, in the presence of Shri Atul Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, EIL; Dr Kali Sanjay, Head, Business Development &CoE, CSIR-IMMT; and senior officials from both organizations at EIL’s Head Office in New Delhi.Under the agreement, EIL and CSIR-IMMT will jointly undertake research and development initiatives in critical and strategic minerals, focussed on engineering and scale-up.The collaboration will also facilitate the exchange of technical expertise, capacity-building programmes, and the execution of pilot-scale and commercial deployment projects.
The MoU with LOHUM aims to advance indigenous technologies for the production of critical rare earth materials used in high performance permanent magnets. By combining CSIR-IMMT’s expertise in minerals and materials technology with LOHUM’s industrial capabilities in battery materials and resource recovery, the partnership will accelerate the development, validation, and commercialisation of technologies for metallised neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), a key input for manufacturing high performance rare earth permanent magnets. The collaboration represents an important industry-government initiative to strengthen India’s domestic rare earth value chain, support the development of an integrated ecosystem for permanent magnet manufacturing, and reduce dependence on imported technologies and materials, in line with the Government of India’s strategic priorities for critical minerals and advanced manufacturing. The MoU was signed by Tarun Singhal, Director, LOHUM and Dr Ramanuj Narayan, Director, CSIR-IMMT, coordinated by Dr Kali Sanjay, Head, Business Development &CoE, CSIR-IMMT; and senior officials from both organizations.
These collaborations are focused on scaling up laboratory-developed processes by addressing the techno-commercial and engineering aspects required for industrial deployment. They build on CSIR-IMMT’s extensive experience in the commercialisation of technologies for critical and strategic minerals and reinforce the institute’s ongoing efforts to develop indigenous technologies in support of the Government of India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the National Critical Mineral Mission, and the Make in India programme, aimed at strengthening self-reliance in critical minerals and green technology value chains.
