In order to jointly explore the deposits of rare earth in Rajasthan’s deserts, Japan is now in conversation with India. This has been confirmed by the two people who are familiar with the discussion and the move comes when Tokyo is looking for measures to reduce its dependence on the supply of critical materials for magnet manufacturing from China.
Why explore specifically in Rajasthan? This is because Kishan Reddy, the country’s Mines Minister, last month revealed that there are three hard rock rare earth deposits that contain almost 1.29 million tonnes of rare earth oxides that have been identified in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
India, back in June 2025, in a bold move to tighten control over critical minerals and challenge China’s dominance, directed IREL to suspend a 13-year-old rare earth export agreement with Japan. The directive, issued by the Indian government to state-run miner IREL (India) Ltd., marks a turning point in New Delhi’s strategy to secure its domestic supply chain for high-tech and clean energy sectors.
Tokyo, following the preliminary pact related to critical minerals, which has been signed between Japan and India, according to the sources, is showing a direct interest in recently found deposits in Rajasthan and is planning to send experts to the site physically.
Now the question that arises, even before a year of the signed pact between India and Japan, this new alliance with Tokyo is a strategy to revive the lost relationship again or a combined move against the global rising reliance on China?
Not only this, in this entire process, Tokyo is deemed to be involved with the decision-making process directly and declined to be named as the deliberations are not public. However, no clear date during which these experts will be visiting India has yet to be revealed.
In this project, the Japanese government, in Rajasthan, shall provide technologies required for extraction and funding in exchange for a stable offtake of rare earths, which will be taken to Japan. These technologies for extracting hard rock deposits mark those that are not currently in India.