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India's Thorium Sector and Critical Mineral Strategy

Wednesday, July 15, 2026
5 min read
India's Thorium Sector and Critical Mineral Strategy

The Centre is actually looking at opening up parts of India’s tightly controlled thorium sector to private companies. This move seems aimed squarely at boosting critical mineral supply chains and cutting down reliance on imported uranium. That's what a report from The Economic Times suggested.

Internal talks are already underway, policy interventions are being discussed to ramp up thorium production. They’re planning to draft some new rules after talking things over with stakeholders the Power Ministry, the Mines department, you know.

One of the ideas floating around involves letting private firms have limited access to those commercially mined monazite-rich coastal sands for extracting thorium. It’s a big shift.

There’s also this push to speed up research and development. They want to cut down the time it takes to turn that thorium into uranium-233 , making sure India gets a steady supply of nuclear fuel domestically.

Officials feel the current policy framework just isn't cutting it anymore. Especially considering how much thorium India actually has, one of the world’s largest reserves, but you still struggle with uranium resources. There’s definitely room for change there.

These proposed reforms are supposed to help hit those clean energy targets. By strengthening the domestic nuclear fuel cycle, they’re talking about making the most of what they already have. Thorium is key here it feeds into India’s whole three-stage nuclear power program because it can be converted into uranium-233, a fissile material that works in reactors.

Beyond just easing up on extraction restrictions, the government is also looking at expanding commercial mining really hard. They need to boost research capabilities and deploy more fast-breeder reactors. That’s essential if this whole thorium strategy is going to actually work for India. It needs to move faster.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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