In the past five years, India’s imports of rare earths from China have gone up 60 to 80 per cent, and the government is now trying to cut this reliance by increasing local production. In March it announced a liberalised scheme allowing private companies to explore minerals and rare earth elements and opened some 13 acreages up for auction. Under this policy, the government will also reimburse half the exploration costs in areas where no minerals are discovered.

I don’t think that India needs extraction so much as processing, where China is really dominant.