India, Dec. 24 -- The Union government's new definition of Aravallis, accepted by the Supreme Court on November 20, and which has raised widespread concerns about the opening up of the Aravallis to mining and other land use change, also makes way for the mining of critical and atomic minerals across the entire mountain range.

The technical committee constituted by the court to come out with a uniform definition of the Aravallis noted a request of the mines ministry that the Aravalli Hills are host to several important major minerals such as lead, zinc, silver, copper etc.The Aravalli-Delhi system has been identified as having significant potential for critical minerals such as tin, graphite, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, lithium, and rare...