Ministry of Mines announces guidelines for Centres of Excellence under NCMM

The Ministry of Mines has released detailed guidelines to set up Centres of Excellence (CoEs) under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). The goal is to push forward research and technology development in India’s critical minerals sector.

The CoEs will focus on end-to-end research—from extraction and beneficiation to processing. The idea is to move technologies closer to real-world use by supporting higher technology readiness levels and pre-commercial demonstrations.

These centres will be chosen from reputed academic and R&D institutions. Once selected, they will act as hubs of expertise, developing and deploying technologies for critical minerals.

Each CoE will run as a consortium using a Hub and Spoke model. This means a core team will be supported by at least two industry partners and two academic or R&D institutions. The structure is designed to encourage collaboration across the value chain and bring together multiple disciplines.

The initiative aims to speed up innovation, support pilot-scale projects, and build strong partnerships between research and industry.