Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Zambian Minister of Finance suspended the 10% export duty on copper concentrates (HS 2603.00.21–29) effective 5 March 2026 under Section 89 of the Customs and Excise Act, providing temporary duty relief to miners whose domestic processing capacity was constrained by extended smelter maintenance cycles at Mopani/ZCCM-IH, Lumwana (Barrick), First Quantum Kansanshi, and Nkana. The suspension allows qualifying copper concentrate to be exported for offshore processing at zero duty, addressing a stockpile overhang across Zambia's copper belt that could not be absorbed by the domestic smelter fleet. A follow-on extension (SI No. 43/2026, effective 1 June 2026 through 30 September 2026) introduced company-specific quotas totalling 271,742 t and mandated channelling through Industrial Resources Limited, an IDC subsidiary.

On 1 February 2026 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled India's Union Budget 2026-27, with Customs Notification No. 02/2026-Customs (dated 1 Feb 2026, effective 2 Feb 2026) implementing the customs-duty package. The notification zero-rates basic customs duty (BCD) on (i) capital goods imported for domestic processing of critical minerals — crushing, beneficiation, refining, chemical-processing, separation/purification, and metallurgical/alloy-making equipment; (ii) capital goods for lithium-ion cell manufacturing for battery energy storage systems (BESS), extending the 2024-25 EV-cell exemption to stationary storage; and (iii) twelve additional critical minerals plus cobalt powder and lithium-ion battery scrap, on top of the 25 critical minerals already exempted in the FY2024-25 budget. In parallel, critical minerals (including monazite / rare-earth concentrate) are migrated from the customs-exemption notification mechanism into the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act at Nil BCD, effective 1 May 2026 — a tariffisation step that locks the rate into primary legislation rather than annually renewable notification. The Budget also commits to dedicated critical-mineral / rare-earth-magnet processing corridors in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Structurally this is the fiscal/tariff layer underneath the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM, Jan 2025) and the National Manufacturing Mission (Feb 2025): NCMM funds capex and overseas asset acquisition (₹34,300 cr), this Budget removes the import-duty drag on the equipment needed to actually run domestic processing lines. It complements the REPM scheme (Nov 2025) for sintered rare-earth magnets and Semicon Mission 2.0 (Feb 2026) on the demand side for refined critical minerals.

On 26 November 2025 the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a Rs 7,280 crore (~USD 800 million) scheme to establish 6,000 MTPA of integrated sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) manufacturing capacity in India. The Ministry of Heavy Industries will allocate capacity to five beneficiaries (up to 1,200 MTPA each) via global competitive bidding. The package combines a Rs 6,450 crore sales-linked incentive (PLI-style, paid on REPM sales over 5 years) with a Rs 750 crore capital subsidy for facility build-out. The scheme runs 7 years from award (2-year gestation + 5-year disbursement) and covers the full value chain from rare-earth oxides through metals, alloys, to finished sintered Nd-Fe-B and SmCo magnets.

Zambia's Statutory Instrument No. 68 of 2025 under the Geological and Minerals Development Act 2022 establishes the first binding procurement-quota local-content regime in the Zambian copper-cobalt mining sector, entering into force 1 January 2026. Mining and mining-related companies must reserve a minimum 20% of their annual procurement budget for Zambian-owned or citizen-empowered suppliers of core mining goods and services, escalating to 25% in year two and 35% in year three, targeting 40% within five years. All non-core ancillary services (catering, security, haulage, cleaning, gardening) are reserved exclusively for Zambian-owned companies. The instrument operationalises the Minerals Regulation Commission created under the 2024 MRC Act and completes the ZM resource-nationalism statute stack.

The Bank of Zambia formally accepted Chinese renminbi (RMB/CNY) for copper and cobalt mining royalty and tax payments starting October 2025, making Zambia the first African country to establish an official RMB settlement channel for mining fiscal flows. In December 2025 the BoZ began publishing an official RMB-kwacha exchange rate to enable precise royalty and corporate tax calculations. The central bank cited efficiency grounds: Chinese mining companies operating Zambia's largest copper producers already receive export revenues in yuan from Chinese off-takers, making yuan-denominated tax settlement a natural extension that also reduces Zambia's Chinese-debt servicing friction. The policy embeds Chinese currency infrastructure into the sovereign fiscal architecture governing Zambia's copper and cobalt supply chain, deepening structural alignment between Zambia's resource sector and China's commodity-import ecosystem.

On 29 January 2025 the Union Cabinet of India approved the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), a seven-year programme running FY2024-25 through FY2030-31 with a headline financial envelope of ₹34,300 crore (≈USD 4.0 bn). The structure is split: ₹16,300 crore of direct government outlay administered by the Ministry of Mines, plus an expected ₹18,000 crore of investment by central public-sector undertakings (PSUs) and other stakeholders. The mission was first announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2024-25 (23 July 2024) and the Cabinet approval gave it formal sanction. The NCMM covers the full critical-minerals value chain: domestic exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, recycling from end-of-life products, and acquisition of overseas mineral assets. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is tasked with executing 1,200 exploration projects over the seven-year window (vs. 368 projects over the prior three years), expanded to offshore polymetallic-nodule provinces containing cobalt, REE, nickel and manganese. More than 100 critical-mineral blocks are slated for auction. Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) — the JV of NALCO, HCL and MECL — is the designated vehicle for overseas acquisitions, with active Argentina lithium (CAMYEN SE, 15,703 ha) and Australia lithium/cobalt off-take pipelines. India's official critical-minerals list contains 30 commodities, of which 24 are inscribed in Part D of Schedule I of the MMDR Act 1957 (after the 2023 amendment), reserving central-government auction authority over them. The NCMM sets an explicit recycling target of 15-20% of domestic critical-mineral demand met from secondary sources (e-waste, battery scrap, industrial waste) by 2035. The mission also funds a National Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals and offers customs-duty waivers on 25 critical minerals (announced in the same FY24-25 budget) to lower import costs while domestic capacity scales. NCMM is India's pull-side complement to the US IRA, EU Critical Raw Materials Act, Canada Critical Minerals Strategy and Australia Critical Minerals Strategy — a coordinated allied response to Chinese dominance over refined cobalt, REE, graphite and gallium/germanium. For India specifically it is framed as the supply-chain underpinning for FAME-III (EV adoption), the Semicon India programme (gallium/germanium/silicon), and the National Solar Mission (silicon, indium, tellurium, gallium for thin-film PV).

Zambia's Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, under Minister Hon. Paul C. Kabuswe, launched the National Critical Minerals Strategy 2024-2028 on 27 August 2024 following Cabinet approval, alongside the National Three Million Tonnes Copper Production Strategy by 2031. The strategy designates copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium, manganese, graphite, tin, uranium and rare earth elements as Zambia's strategic critical minerals and is built on four pillars: geological knowledge and resource management; value addition and local processing; government participation through a special-purpose vehicle taking up to 30% equity in new strategic projects; and regulatory and institutional reform. It is the first standalone Zambian industrial-policy framework for critical-minerals beneficiation and the first ZM action in the IPTM register.