India has dispatched a team of geologists to Zambia to explore copper and cobalt deposits, two Indian government sources said, as New Delhi steps up efforts to secure critical mineral supplies essential to its energy transition.
The Zambian government this year agreed to allocate 9,000 square km (3,475 square miles) to India for the exploration of cobalt – a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones – as well as for scouting copper, which is widely used in power generation, electronics, and construction.
The exploration project will last for three years and most of the analysis will be done in laboratories in India, one of the sources said.
The team is expected to make multiple visits over the course of the entire project, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the information is not public.
After assessing the mining potential, the Indian government will seek a mining lease from the Zambian government and may also invite private-sector companies to participate in the project, the sources said.
India’s Ministry of Mines did not respond to a request for comment.
New Delhi has been in talks with several African countries to acquire critical mineral blocks on a government-to-government basis while also exploring opportunities in Australia and Latin America.
India is also in discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign an initial agreement to secure supplies of cobalt and copper, Reuters reported in March.
An Indian delegation attended a mining conference in Congo last month and toured local mines, the ministry said in a post on X.
India has held internal discussions over its growing vulnerability to a tightening global copper market and plans to explore ways to secure supply from resource-rich countries during ongoing trade negotiations, Reuters reported last week.
India’s copper imports have risen sharply since the 2018 closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper smelter. The country imported 1.2 million metric tons of copper in the fiscal year ending March 2025, up 4% from the previous year.
India is almost entirely dependent on cobalt imports and shipments of cobalt oxide rose 20% in 2024/25 to 693 metric tons, government data showed.
