Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited (GMDC) has entered into a collaboration with the University of Cambridge to establish a dedicated Rare Earth Observatory at GMDC's International Centre of Excellence in Mining. The observatory will deploy artificial intelligence to deliver an interactive intelligence platform that tracks the complete rare earth elements value chain in real time, from mine to magnet.
The platform will monitor price movements, processing capacity, supply disruptions, and geopolitical risk across global rare earth supply chains. The initiative unites GMDC's mining expertise with the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge, whose Industrial Resilience Group works on critical mineral supply chains, ESG integration, and AI-driven industrial analytics. The observatory will integrate Cambridge's research tools with operational data from GMDC's mining operations in Gujarat.
The collaboration is structured as a phased two-year programme with an investment of £600,000. It will deliver scalable, operationally deployable intelligence tools designed to position Gujarat and India at the forefront of rare earth supply chain resilience.
India's rare earth permanent magnet consumption is projected to double by 2030, driven by electric vehicles, renewable energy, and defence applications. Real-time supply chain intelligence for rare earths has become a national strategic priority for India. The Rare Earth Observatory will provide data for policy calibration, industrial procurement, and strategic stockpiling decisions.
Through iCEM, an organisation supported by GMDC, the collaboration provides access to Cambridge's research tools and global network. Shri Roopwant Singh, IAS, Managing Director of GMDC, said rare earth elements are a sovereignty story and the observatory creates an AI-driven intelligence architecture for the REE value chain that India had not previously possessed. The initiative advances GMDC's evolution into a knowledge-driven enterprise in support of the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat initiatives.
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