Securing India’s Critical Metals, From Scrap to Supply Chain
India imports 100% of its lithium, cobalt and nickel. The fastest new source isn't a new mine — it's the urban mine: metal already in circulation. Metalbook closes the loop from scrap to battery- and industrial-grade material, at industrial scale.
30
Minerals declared critical by the Government of India
100%
Import dependence for lithium, cobalt & nickel
86%
Of key mineral refining concentrated in just 3 countries
40%
Less new copper & cobalt mining needed by 2050 through recycling (IEA)
The supply chain is the new mine
Critical metals power everything India is building next — EVs, solar, wind, electronics, defence. But their extraction and refining are concentrated in a handful of geographies, exposing Indian manufacturers to price shocks and supply disruption. Recycling is the one source of critical metals that already sits inside India: in end-of-life vehicles, machinery, cables, batteries and electronics. What’s been missing is an organised supply chain to recover it. That is what Metalbook is building.
Cables & Machinery
Wire, motors and transformers carry recoverable copper and aluminium — the workhorse metals of electrification.
Electronics & E-Waste
Circuit boards, drives and devices hold tin, precious metals and rare-earth magnets — India’s fastest-growing urban mine.
Batteries & EVs
Every EV and storage battery sold today is tomorrow’s domestic source of lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Critical metals in the Metalbook ecosystem
From high-volume copper and nickel flowing through our marketplace today, to battery metals and rare earths recovered with our processing partners.
Copper
LIVE ON MARKETPLACEThe backbone metal of electrification — an EV uses up to 4× the copper of an ICE vehicle. On India’s critical minerals list.
Recovered from: cable & wire scrap, motors, transformers
Nickel
LIVE ON MARKETPLACEEssential for stainless steel and EV battery cathodes. India is 100% import-dependent for primary nickel.
Recovered from: stainless steel scrap, alloy scrap, batteries
Aluminium
LIVE ON MARKETPLACEStrategic for solar, EVs and transmission. Recycling saves ~95% of the energy of primary production.
Recovered from: extrusion, UBC, cast & wire scrap, ELVs
Zinc
LIVE ON MARKETPLACEGalvanising and die-casting workhorse, vital for infrastructure durability and battery technologies.
Recovered from: die-cast scrap, galvanisers’ dross, EAF dust
Cobalt
VIA PROCESSING PARTNERSBattery cathode metal with acute supply concentration. Recovered from lithium-ion battery black mass.
Recovered from: Li-ion battery scrap, superalloy scrap
Lithium
VIA PROCESSING PARTNERSThe defining energy-transition metal. India generated ~1.5 Mt of e-waste in 2025 — a growing source.
Recovered from: Li-ion battery scrap (EV, ESS, electronics)
Tungsten
VIA PROCESSING PARTNERSHardest of the industrial metals; critical for tooling and defence. Highly recyclable from carbide scrap.
Recovered from: carbide tools, HSS scrap, wear parts
Rare Earths & more
ROADMAPNdFeB magnets, PGMs from catalytic converters, tin from solder — the next frontier of urban mining.
Recovered from: motors, hard drives, converters, e-waste
The five stages, in detail
Every tonne of scrap is an above-ground ore body. Recovery follows five stages — and fragmented, opaque supply chains are the biggest bottleneck at every one of them.
01
Collection & Aggregation
Scrap from dismantlers, dealers, industry and ELVs is aggregated into bankable, consistent volumes.
02
Sorting & Grading
Material is segregated and graded with verified chemistry (XRF/spectro), so recovery value isn’t lost.
03
Mechanical Processing
Shredding, baling and separation isolate metal fractions and battery black mass.
04
Extraction & Refining
Smelting and hydrometallurgy recover refined copper, aluminium, nickel and battery salts.
05
Back Into Manufacturing
Recovered metal re-enters supply chains as rod, billet, ingot, cathode and precursors.
Where Metalbook operates: we are the digital supply-chain layer across all five stages — aggregation, verified grading, commerce, logistics and financing — and we route material into extraction and refining through our recycler and processor network. We make recovery economically viable; our partners make it metallurgically possible.
How Metalbook enables the critical metals supply chain
Aggregation at Scale
2,700+ suppliers on one platform turn India’s fragmented scrap ecosystem into reliable, contract-grade volumes for recyclers and refiners.
Verified Quality & Grading
Standardised grades and documented chemistry mean buyers know exactly what critical metal content they’re paying for.
Managed Logistics
180+ logistics partners with end-to-end tracking move scrap and recovered metal between yards, processors and plants.
Working-Capital Finance
Collateral-free credit keeps recyclers liquid through the cash-heavy scrap cycle — the biggest constraint on recycling capacity.
Live Price Discovery
Transparent, real-time commodity pricing replaces opaque yard-gate negotiation, pulling more material into formal recovery.
Traceability & Compliance
A digital trail from source to smelter supports EPR obligations, GST compliance and the provenance documentation buyers demand.
Beyond trading: services the ecosystem runs on
EPR Compliance Solutions
End-to-end support for producers under the Battery Waste Management Rules 2022 & E-Waste Rules — collection, routing to certified recyclers, audit-ready documentation.
Buyback & Asset Recovery
Structured buyback programmes for OEMs, fleets and industry: end-of-life batteries, machinery and process scrap converted into recovered value.
Price Intelligence
Live commodity and scrap price discovery across critical-metal streams, so participants transact on data instead of yard-gate opacity.
Verified Processor Network
Feedstock routed only to licensed, audited recyclers and refiners — matching material chemistry to the right recovery route.
Policy is now pulling in the same direction
India has made critical mineral security a national mission — and recycling is at the centre of it.
National Critical Mineral Mission
A national mission to secure India’s critical mineral value chain — exploration, acquisition, processing and recycling.
Recycling Incentive Scheme
Capex and opex incentives targeting 270 kt of new recycling capacity and 40 kt of recovered critical minerals from scrap.
EV & Renewables Build-Out
Every EV, solar park and grid upgrade deepens demand for copper, aluminium, nickel and battery metals — served domestically.
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India’s critical mineral recycling incentive scheme is a Rs 1,500 crore programme, approved by the Union Cabinet on 3 September 2025 under the National Critical Mineral Mission. It provides subsidies to companies recovering critical minerals from e-waste, spent lithium-ion batteries and other scrap, and yes, it’s meant to move the needle sooner rather than later. The plan lasts for six years, from FY 2025-26 till FY 2030-31, and it rewards real mineral extraction, not merely black mass production, which some people might misunderstand.
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