Three Indian private companies -- Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti -- are separately building lithium refining, overseas mining and battery-recycling capacity, turning India's critical-minerals strategy from policy talk into real infrastructure.
At a glance
- Hyderabad-based Altmin, India's first project listed under the Mineral Security Partnership, is building a $200 million lithium refinery at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, targeting about 30,000 tonnes a year of spodumene processed into battery-grade lithium carbonate using refining technology bought from Brazil for $15-20 million.
- Altmin is separately building a Rs 750 crore lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode plant at Divitipally in Telangana -- India's first -- with an initial 8 gigawatt-hour capacity the company has said it wants to scale toward 100,000 tonnes a year by 2030.
- Noida-based LOHUM dispatched its first shipment of lithium ore on September 9, 2026 from 10 mining blocks covering roughly 1,100 hectares in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province, becoming the first Indian company to produce lithium from an overseas mining asset.
- LOHUM holds an option on 90 more adjacent Zimbabwe blocks and is targeting about 30,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate output within two to three years, to be refined in India rather than exported as raw ore.
What happened
Three Indian private companies are building distinct pieces of a domestic lithium supply chain that, until now, existed mostly as government targets and think-tank recommendations. Hyderabad-based Altmin -- India's first project listed under the 14-nation Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), officially confirmed in August 2025 -- is building a $200 million lithium refinery at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh designed to process roughly 30,000 tonnes a year of spodumene ore into battery-grade lithium carbonate, using refining technology it acquired from Brazil for $15-20 million. Noida-based LOHUM, already India's largest integrated lithium-ion battery recycler, dispatched its first shipment of lithium ore on September 9, 2026 from 10 mining blocks it has secured across roughly 1,100 hectares in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province, with an option on 90 more adjacent blocks, and plans to refine the material into lithium carbonate back in India rather than sell the raw ore. Kolkata-based Navprakriti, which already recycles roughly 1,000 tonnes of batteries a month at its eastern India plant, has secured an import licence from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and is targeting its first shipments of imported battery scrap from Bangladesh and Nepal as early as October 2026.
The details
This month alone, India's critical-minerals debate has mostly played out as advice. A Bengaluru think tank argued on September 8 that "a mineral in the ground is not security until it enters the supply chain." A government minister told a FICCI conference on September 17 that the sector needs separation, refining and recycling technology, not just more ore. Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti did not wait for either message to land -- Altmin's Mineral Security Partnership listing was locked in a year earlier, in August 2025, and LOHUM shipped real ore out of Zimbabwe two days before the think tank even published its assessment.
Altmin and LOHUM attack the same gap from opposite ends of one process. Altmin's Kakinada project takes in already-mined spodumene ore and turns it into refined lithium carbonate -- the actual battery-grade material manufacturers need -- using refining technology the company bought in Brazil specifically because it is one of only a handful of such processes operating anywhere outside China. LOHUM works the stage before that: securing the ore itself, at the mine, in a country India has no existing lithium supply relationship with. Its 10 Zimbabwean blocks cover roughly 1,100 hectares, with an option to expand across 90 more, and the company is targeting around 30,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate production from the asset within two to three years -- output it plans to refine domestically rather than sell as ore, layering directly onto the same kind of India-based refining capacity Altmin is building.
Navprakriti's play sits at the opposite end of the value chain entirely: recovery, not extraction. Its DGFT import licence lets it bring in used batteries from Bangladesh and Nepal, markets that generate battery waste faster than they can process it domestically, feeding a Kolkata recycling line that already handles roughly 1,000 tonnes of batteries a month. That is a genuinely different kind of mineral security than mining or refining -- every tonne of lithium, cobalt or nickel recovered from a dead battery is a tonne India does not need to import fresh from anyone, mined or refined.
None of the three projects is large enough on its own to meaningfully dent India's import dependence. A 30,000-tonne refinery and a similarly sized overseas mining target are modest next to the scale of global lithium supply, and Navprakriti's monthly recycling volumes remain small next to the country's total raw-material needs. What matters is that all three are moving in the same direction at once, across mining, refining and recycling, funded by private capital rather than a ministry allocation. If even a handful of the other private miners already chasing exploration deals in Africa follow a similar path, India's critical-minerals strategy stops being a slide in a government deck and starts looking like an actual supply chain.
Why it matters
For Indian battery and EV manufacturers currently paying import prices for both refined lithium and the technology used to refine it, three working supply chains -- even small ones -- begin to change the negotiating position. A buyer with a credible domestic refining option, a mine of its own overseas, and a recycling stream to draw scrap from has leverage a buyer with none of those doesn't, regardless of how many government targets exist on paper.
Our read
Outlook: neutral. This is company-level capacity-building news -- refining plants under construction, a mining project ramping up, a recycling operation expanding -- not a supply or demand shock, so it carries no near-term move in lithium spot prices. Its significance is structural: it shows private capital, not just policy, starting to close India's lithium processing gap over a multi-year horizon.
What to watch
- Whether Altmin's Kakinada refinery hits its roughly two-year commissioning target
- LOHUM's progress toward its 30,000-tonne-a-year Zimbabwe lithium carbonate target and whether it exercises its option on the additional 90 mining blocks
- Navprakriti's first imported battery-scrap shipment, targeted for October 2026
- Whether other private Indian miners or recyclers announce similar overseas mining or refining moves in the coming months
For information only, not investment advice.
Lithium price in India
metalscost.com India reference price as of 2026-10-03.
Detailed analysis
Timeline
- 2025-03-13: Altmin lays the foundation stone for its Rs 750 crore LFP cathode giga-factory at Divitipally, Telangana.
- 2025-08-01: Altmin's lithium-refining project is officially listed as India's first under the Mineral Security Partnership.
- 2026-09-09: LOHUM dispatches its first shipment of lithium ore from its Zimbabwe mining blocks, becoming the first Indian company to produce lithium overseas.
- 2026-09-15: Business Standard reports on Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti's parallel private-sector build-out of India's lithium supply chain.
Demand Drivers
India's EV and battery-storage growth is the underlying pull behind all three projects -- Altmin's cathode plant and refinery, LOHUM's mining and refining, and Navprakriti's recycling are each a bet that domestic battery demand will keep outrunning India's current near-total reliance on imported lithium materials.
Supply Drivers
Three new, privately funded supply channels are opening at once: refined lithium carbonate from Altmin's planned 30,000-tonne-a-year Kakinada plant, mined lithium carbonate from LOHUM's Zimbabwe blocks, and recovered battery metals from Navprakriti's expanding recycling and import pipeline.
Government Policies
Altmin's lithium-refining project became India's first listed under the US-led, 14-nation Mineral Security Partnership in August 2025 after the Ministry of Mines proposed it in 2023; Navprakriti's plan depends on a DGFT import licence it has already secured, the regulatory gate that determines whether the battery-scrap import plan can proceed on schedule.
Geopolitical Risks
China's dominance of global lithium refining is the specific gap Altmin's Brazilian technology purchase and LOHUM's Zimbabwe mining are each designed to route around -- sourcing refining know-how and raw ore from outside China-controlled supply chains rather than through them.
Mining Production
LOHUM's first ore shipment from its 10 Zimbabwean blocks on September 9, 2026 makes it the first Indian company to produce lithium from an overseas mining asset, with an option on 90 further adjacent blocks in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province.
Refinery Output
Altmin's planned Kakinada refinery targets roughly 30,000 tonnes a year of spodumene processed into battery-grade lithium carbonate; LOHUM already runs a Greater Noida refining facility and is planning a larger new India-based refinery for the Zimbabwe-mined material.
What could lift prices
- All three projects have moved past the announcement stage: LOHUM has already shipped real ore, Navprakriti already holds its DGFT import licence, and Altmin's MSP listing and Telangana cathode plant groundbreaking are both a year or more old.
- The projects cover three different stages of the same supply chain at once -- mining, refining and recycling -- rather than duplicating effort in one segment.
- Altmin's Brazilian technology acquisition and LOHUM's Zimbabwe mining both specifically route around China-controlled lithium supply chains rather than depending on them.
What could weigh on prices
- Combined, the announced capacity -- a roughly 30,000-tonne refinery, a similarly sized overseas mining target, and a four-figure-tonne recycling operation -- is small next to India's total lithium-material needs and negligible against global supply.
- Altmin's two-year commissioning target for Kakinada and Navprakriti's October 2026 import target are both timelines that could slip, as large refining and cross-border logistics projects often do.
Country impact
| Country | Impact | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| India | High | All three companies are Indian, and the refining, mining and recycling capacity they are building directly targets India's near-total reliance on imported lithium materials for its EV and battery industries. |
| Zimbabwe | Medium | Host country to LOHUM's 10 secured lithium mining blocks, with 90 more adjacent blocks under option -- a new mining relationship for both countries. |
| Brazil | Low | Source of the lithium-refining technology Altmin acquired for its Kakinada plant, described as one of the few such processes operating outside China -- an early instance of direct Brazil-India critical-minerals technology transfer. |
Industry impact
| Industry | Effect | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Battery Manufacturing | Positive | Altmin's planned lithium carbonate and LFP cathode output would give Indian battery manufacturers a domestic feedstock option in place of imported material. |
| Electric Vehicles | Positive | Domestic lithium refining, overseas mining and battery recycling capacity all reduce a key long-term supply risk for India's EV battery supply chain, if the projects scale as planned. |
| Battery Recycling | Positive | Navprakriti's DGFT import licence and expanding Kolkata facility directly grow India's formal battery-recycling capacity and its access to imported battery scrap as feedstock. |
Who gains, who loses
- Indian EV and battery cell manufacturers: A domestic refining option, an overseas-mined lithium source, and a growing recycling stream together reduce reliance on any single imported supply route for battery-grade lithium.
- Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti: Each company gains first-mover position in a specific segment of India's still-thin domestic lithium supply chain -- refining, overseas mining, and recycling respectively.
- Importers of refined lithium carbonate and spodumene from China-linked supply chains: Every tonne of lithium India refines, mines or recycles domestically is a tonne of demand that no longer has to route through an existing China-controlled import channel.
Other ways this could play out
- If more private Indian miners and recyclers follow Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti's lead, a genuinely diversified private-sector lithium supply chain could take shape within a few years, meaningfully reducing China-linked import dependence.
- If any of the three stalls -- a delayed Kakinada commissioning, a Zimbabwe permitting or logistics setback, or Bangladesh/Nepal battery-scrap supply failing to materialize -- India's import dependence would reset close to current levels regardless of the stated targets.
Price risks
- A delay in Kakinada's commissioning or in the ramp-up of LOHUM's Zimbabwe output would keep India reliant on imported lithium carbonate for longer than current timelines suggest.
- Navprakriti's import plan depends on continued battery-scrap availability from Bangladesh and Nepal and on discussions with Indonesian, Singaporean and African suppliers that have not yet been finalized.
Historical comparison
- September 8-17, 2026: A Synergia Foundation assessment and a government-backed FICCI conference both argued, within the same month, that India's critical-minerals strategy needed to move from mining into processing, refining and recycling -- the same three stages Altmin, LOHUM and Navprakriti are separately building out in that same window.
- Mid-2026: Hyderabad-based Midwest Ltd became the first private Indian company to secure a mining asset abroad, agreeing an MoU with Indonesia's state miner PERMINAS; LOHUM's Zimbabwe shipment is the first instance of a private Indian miner actually producing from an overseas asset, not just signing for one.
Technical view
Price is trading below both its 20-period and 50-period moving averages, a bearish alignment.
Computed from metalscost.com's own stored price history.
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