Research Projects

Critical minerals are requisite to achieve the green economy and to boosting the new era of technologies such as electric vehicles, computers, solar panels, and wind turbines (Calderón et al., 2024). The use of Lithium-ion battery is one of the modern technologies which relies on driving growing demand for electric vehicles and storage, particularly in Asia, Europe and the USA (IEA, 2020). Pegmatite rocks are the primary sources of lithium (Karrech et al., 2020; Gao et al., 2023) and the associated minerals of the critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt etc. are economically important however it is very risk to processing with them. The main aims of the study are to describe the field petrography, mineralogical, and geochemical characterization of Neoarchean pegmatites and host granites from the Banda and Chitrakoot districts on the eastern margin of the Bundelkhand craton, Northern India. This Archaean cratonic block consists of granitic complexes, tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) suites, and late-stage pegmatite intrusions. The granitic pegmatites in these districts are still underexplored when compared to other well-studied pegmatite belts in India, such as the Bastar–Koraput belt. Pegmatites and their host rocks in the Bundelkhand Craton remain unexplored and lack categorization based on petrography and mineralogy. The proposed study area predominantly consists of granite outcrops and pegmatites (hosted within granites), covering about 70% of the area (Figs. 1 and 2). It is located on the eastern margin of the Bundelkhand Craton in northern India (Kumar, 2024). The pegmatites and coarse granites are formed due to crustal thickening, mantle heating, enriched felsic sources, fluid activity, and tectonic stress driving melt generation and emplacement (e.g., Condie, 1997). Pegmatites formed from highly differentiated melt having a high concentration of water and other volatiles. These melts may originate from residual fluids left after crystallization of granitic magma or from direct melting events involving hydrated minerals. The presence of volatiles lowers the melting point of rocks, allowing the formation of pegmatitic textures characterized by large crystal sizes. Murthy and Dutta (1962), Joshi et al. (2014), and Singh et al. (2016) have inspected various aspects of pegmatites, particularly mica-bearing ones, within the Aravalli Craton of northern India. Lithium and tungsten mineralization have also been reported within the Erinpura granite intrusions in this cratonic region (Banerji and Pandit, 1995). In the Revat Hill–Degana area of Rajasthan, tungsten mineralization is associated with Li-F granites of varying ages. Revat Hill is characterised by the presence of granite and numerous aplite dikes. In the same way, lithium reserves were discovered for the first time in India in 2023 with an estimated 5.9 million tonnes identified in the Reasi district of Jammu & Kashmir (Geological Survey of India).