India should leverage southern Africa's rare earth minerals: Exim Bank

India needs to form strategic alliances with southern African countries where critical rare earth minerals are produced, as the world looks to the continent to fulfil the ever-increasing demand for them, a report by India Exim Bank has suggested.

The report, titled 'Reinvigorating India's Engagements with Southern Africa,' was released in Johannesburg this week as part of the CII-Exim Bank Regional Conclave on India-Southern Africa Growth Partnership.

Development finance institutions from India and the African Development Bank should work closely with the governments of the southern Africa countries to understand the needs of these commercial Rare Earth Elements (REE) development attempts and support the companies to develop the value chain from end to end, the report said.

The region is richly endowed in lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel, copper, and other rare earth minerals.

All of these are essential for building the global green economy of the future and they also comprise ne