The market for critical minerals in India is shifting away from mineral auctions and entering a wider project development and procurement cycle. By July 2026, the Ministry of Mines was able to auction 56 of 88 critical and strategic mineral blocks put up for auction. The 8th tranche of the auction was launched in July. It included a further 20 blocks across nine states with minerals such as graphite, rare earth elements, lithium, molybdenum, gallium, tungsten among others being featured in this tranche. The deadline for submission of bids has been set to September 21, 2026.
In the case of the tender sector, importance encompasses much more than the monetary worth of the mineral blocks sold at auction. The victorious bidders, when they embark on their exploration and project development projects, will create demand for drilling , geological surveys, feasibility studies, mining equipment, roads, energy, water, processing, treatment of ores, laboratories, EPC contracts, and logistics. By September 2026, the tender sector had already witnessed some activity on the procurement side, especially in terms of rare earth processing.
The 2026 Opportunity Is Larger Than the Number of Mineral Tenders
At present, there is no single database maintained by the government which gives consolidated information on the “total count of critical mineral tenders in India in 2026” across commonly used public procurement platforms like CPPP, GeM, till PSU contracts, NMET exploratory projects and state tenders. Hence, aggregating tenders from various respective procurement systems and giving the result as a sole national figure would lead to erroneous conclusions. An appropriate approach here is rather to follow major initiatives/projects (the value of the tenders and exploratory projects) separately.
The biggest known procurement scheme is the ₹7,280-crore Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) initiative by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. It opened an international tender on March 20, 2026 to set up an integrated sintered NdFeB permanent-magnet capacity of 6,000 tonnes per year. In August this year, the government received 20 bids and will choose five successful bidders. Each winner can bid for a maximum capacity of 1,200 tonnes per year.
Lithium: KABIL Is Building the Overseas Supply Pipeline
Lithium remains one of India's most strategically important minerals because of its role in batteries, electric vehicles and energy storage. Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), promoted by NALCO, Hindustan Copper and MECL, is responsible for identifying, acquiring and developing strategic mineral assets overseas. KABIL has exploration rights over five lithium brine blocks in Argentina's Catamarca province and is also evaluating lithium and cobalt opportunities in Australia.
For tender-focused companies, the immediate opportunity is less about a conventional government lithium purchase and more about the development of mineral assets. Exploration drilling , geological surveys, feasibility studies, laboratory testing, mining services, processing technology and associated infrastructure can generate procurement requirements as these projects mature. The eventual downstream market will include battery-cell manufacturers, EV companies and energy-storage businesses. KABIL's overseas projects should therefore be monitored as future project-development and procurement pipelines, rather than treated as confirmed lithium purchase tenders.
Cobalt: Strategic Sourcing Is Ahead of Large-Scale Procurement
Cobalt remains a strategic supply concern because India has limited domestic production and relies heavily on international sources. KABIL's overseas strategy includes cobalt, with opportunities in Australia under evaluation. India is also strengthening relationships with mineral-rich countries in Africa. However, these developments represent strategic sourcing, exploration and investment activity rather than a confirmed large-scale government cobalt procurement programme.
The tender opportunity will become more visible as projects move towards exploration, mining and processing. Potential contracts could cover drilling , geological services, mineral testing, mining equipment, processing plants, logistics and battery-material production. Battery recycling is another area worth tracking because cobalt recovered from end-of-life batteries can become a secondary source of supply. For TenderBook users, searches around cobalt exploration, battery recycling, mineral recovery and battery-material processing may therefore identify opportunities that a simple “cobalt tender” search would miss.
Graphite: Exploration and Processing Are Creating New Opportunities
Graphite has featured prominently in India's successive critical-mineral auction rounds, including the eighth tranche launched in July 2026. The latest tranche included graphite-bearing blocks in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, among other strategic mineral opportunities. The Ministry of Mines conducted roadshows during the bidding period to attract investors and explain the exploration potential and tender documents associated with the blocks.
The procurement opportunity begins after the mineral block is awarded. Graphite projects can require exploration drilling , geological surveys, excavation, crushing and grinding equipment, beneficiation systems, laboratories and transportation. The downstream opportunity is particularly important because graphite is a key material for lithium-ion battery anodes. This means future procurement could extend into purification, advanced graphite processing and battery-material manufacturing, creating opportunities for EPC contractors and specialised technology suppliers.
Rare Earths Have the Clearest Current Tender Activity
Rare earths currently offer the strongest evidence that India's critical-mineral strategy is translating into actual procurement. IREL (India) Limited is a major government-owned player in rare-earth mining and processing. Its 2026 tender pipeline includes requirements associated with rare-earth extraction, laboratories, mineral handling, plant maintenance and processing infrastructure. In September alone, IREL published tenders covering the outsourcing of technical manpower for its Rare Earth Extraction Plant, chemical laboratory and mineral laboratory, as well as pilot-plant development for producing 99.9% europium oxide and electrification work for a terbium stream.
One of the September IREL tenders, for contractual manpower covering the technical services department including the REEP and laboratories, carried an estimated value of ₹50.66 lakh and was published on 28 September, with bids due on 19 October 2026. IREL's September procurement list also includes mixer-settler fabrication, mineral-sand excavation and transportation, plant maintenance, processing equipment and other supporting requirements. These are smaller individual contracts than the national REPM programme, but they demonstrate how critical-mineral projects create recurring procurement opportunities once facilities enter development and operations.
Exploration Projects Are Adding Another Layer of Demand
The National Mineral Exploration Trust provides another useful indicator of the emerging procurement market. Its 2026 project pipeline includes exploration projects for graphite, rare earth elements, lithium and other critical minerals. Recent sanctioned projects include graphite exploration in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand, REE exploration in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, and a lithium-related technology project. Several of these individual exploration projects are valued from tens of lakhs to several crores.
For example, NMET lists a graphite and associated critical-mineral exploration project in Chhattisgarh at about ₹2.15 crore, graphite exploration in Odisha at about ₹1.68 crore, another graphite project in Jharkhand at about ₹1.64 crore, and REE exploration projects in Rajasthan valued at about ₹5.16 crore and ₹3.44 crore. These should be treated as individual exploration-project values, not as the value of the entire critical-mineral tender market. They nevertheless show how procurement is beginning to move into geological and exploration services.
Who Is Buying?
The buyer landscape is becoming increasingly diverse. KABIL is central to India's overseas lithium and cobalt strategy, while IREL is an important institutional buyer and processor in the rare-earth sector. Successful bidders for mineral blocks become potential buyers of exploration services, mining equipment, infrastructure and processing systems. Downstream manufacturers will increasingly enter the market as battery materials, permanent magnets and advanced components are produced domestically.
This means the potential bidder base is much wider than mining companies. Exploration agencies, drilling contractors, EPC companies, mineral-processing equipment manufacturers, engineering consultants, laboratory-service providers, logistics companies, recyclers and technology suppliers can all participate at different stages of the project cycle.
What Is Coming Next?
The near-term pipeline is likely to be driven by the projects emerging from the critical-mineral auctions and the expansion of existing processing facilities. The eighth auction tranche has moved through its September 21 bid-submission deadline, with blocks covering graphite, REE and rare metals among others. The next procurement opportunities will increasingly depend on the progress of successful bidders through exploration, feasibility and mine-development stages.
At the downstream end, the ₹7,280-crore REPM scheme remains the largest identifiable manufacturing opportunity, while IREL's continuing procurement provides a more immediate stream of smaller processing, laboratory, equipment, manpower and infrastructure contracts. The September 2026 IREL pipeline, for example, includes a pilot plant for 99.9% europium oxide, mixer-settler equipment, mineral excavation and transportation, and technical manpower for rare-earth facilities.
