BENGALURU -- Critical minerals company Lohum, which last month became India's first business to begin overseas lithium mining operations, plans to target the domestic electric vehicle market by setting up 30,000 metric tons of annual domestic lithium carbonate refining capacity, founder and CEO Rajat Verma told Nikkei Asia.

India remains fully import-dependent for lithium, cobalt and nickel, which are minerals it has identified as critical for its clean energy transition because they are essential for EVs, renewables storage and broader clean energy infrastructure. According to industry estimates, over 70% of the global lithium refining capacity is concentrated in China.

"[Lithium] is an area where we don't want to be beholden to China or to any one particular country," Verma said. "And India, quite honestly, is a country which can operate at similar cost structures as that of China." Lohum's lithium mining and processing operations in Zimbabwe mark an early step in India's efforts to secure critical minerals overseas while building domestic capacity to process them into battery materials. The company, founded in 2018, began with domestic critical mineral recycling from lithium-ion batteries to auto catalysts -- and is now planning to expand into refining of primary lithium and nickel feedstocks as it targets revenue of 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) by 2029.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Lohum will set up a plant in Zimbabwe to process the lithium ore into lithium sulphate, with a total investment of $100 million in the country. The sulphate will then be shipped to India, where it will be refined into lithium carbonate. Verma anticipates that reaching the planned 30,000 tons of capacity could take up to three years.

Setting up processing capacity in Zimbabwe was critical for Lohum, Verma said, given the African nation's own restrictions on exporting raw ore as it seeks to maintain autonomy over its national resources.

"Carrying out an operation in international jurisdictions is always fraught with challenges," Verma said. "Our goal was not just to take out Zimbabwe's lithium." Lohum is among the handful of companies in India setting up cathode materials manufacturing plants as the country races to build its own battery supply chain. Cathode and anode materials, along with electrolytes and separators, make up the battery cells that power EVs and underpin energy storage, which is vital to addressing the variability of renewable power.

The refined lithium carbonate will feed Lohum's 20 billion rupee, 20,000-ton cathode materials plant. The company could also supply the refined lithium to other companies setting up such plants, Verma said.

Indian automotive companies such as Ola Electric and Amara Raja have started or are planning rollouts of more expensive NMC battery cells, a type of lithium-ion cell that uses cathodes made of nickel, manganese and cobalt, given China's grip on the cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry and associated technology.

Lohum's cathode materials plant will cater to NMC chemistry, Verma said.

"The sense that we have is at any given point of time, 30% to 35% of the Indian EV market will be on NMC," he said. "A lot of cell manufacturers in India have already set up or are in the process of setting up their NMC lines.

"The international market, particularly the U.S., is also very NMC heavy." He added that energy storage is unlikely to be an area of focus for Lohum, as LFP dominates in that area.

Lohum is also in early stages of exploring nickel mining in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines for its cathode plant, Verma said. The company currently produces about 1,000 tons of nickel a year through its battery recycling operations in the Indian state of Gujarat, a fraction of what it needs.

Verma said that collaboration between India's public and private sectors is needed to secure more such overseas assets, adding that combining the agility of private companies with the "stamp of government ownership" that public sector businesses have could make the process faster and easier.

Based on his conversations with the government, Verma said that officials are open to interventions to support the domestic lithium refining industry once it takes off, using both subsidies and tariff and nontariff barriers on imports.

"When the market is controlled heavily by one nation, there can be a lot of price volatility. We don't want the industry to collapse simply because there is someone else who wants the industry to collapse," Verma said. "The government, in my opinion, is quite open to the thought of intervention so we give ourselves the time needed to actually build the capabilities in the country."