15 - 06 - 2026

India turns to Russian mining assets to secure heavy industry and EV transition

India is accelerating high-level talks to acquire coking coal assets and ramp up nickel imports from Russia,
according to a Reuters report. The moves are part of an aggressive strategy by the world’s second-largest crude steel producer to insulate its heavy industry from volatile global supply chains and fuel its ambitious green energy transition.

A senior Indian delegation quietly visited Moscow in May for preliminary talks with Russian government officials and mining executives, according to people familiar with the matter. The bilateral outreach follows an initial round of discussions held in New Delhi in April, highlighting a coordinated effort to deepen resource ties despite ongoing Western sanctions on Moscow.

Dual-track strategy: Steel production and the EV push

The state-backed push is driven by India’s concurrent goals of expanding its industrial footprint while hitting aggressive decarbonisation targets. Steel production sits at the intersection of both ambitions: it is the literal backbone of India’s infrastructure boom and a core component in manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy systems.

India's 2030 EV Target vs. Current Market Penetration

┌───────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ Vehicle Segment   │ Current (2026)│ 2030 Target  │
├───────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ Passenger Cars    │ ~6%          │ 30%          │
│ Two-Wheelers      │ ~9%          │ 80%          │
└───────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘

The resource race is tied directly to two crucial commodities:

• Coking Coal: Essential for blast-furnace steelmaking. New Delhi designated it a “critical and strategic mineral” in January due to severe import vulnerabilities. India currently relies on Australia for more than half of its coking coal requirements, leaving it exposed to price spikes and shipping bottlenecks.
• Nickel: A critical ingredient for both stainless steel production and the lithium-ion batteries required to meet India’s 2030 transport goals. India currently imports the vast majority of its nickel from China, Japan, Norway, and the US, with Russian volumes remaining marginal.

NMDC and SAIL lead the resource hunt

The corporate vanguard of this diplomatic push consists of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the country’s largest state-owned steelmaker, and NMDC, its premier state-backed iron ore miner. SAIL has established an internal panel specifically tasked with evaluating the commercial viability and geopolitical risks of acquiring Russian metallurgical assets.

For NMDC, the Russian talks align with a massive capital expenditure pivot. Long operating primarily as a domestic iron ore miner, NMDC has embarked on an aggressive diversification strategy aimed at transforming itself into a global mining powerhouse. According to recent disclosures from NMDC’s leadership, the company plans to deploy ₹40,000 crore to ₹50,000 crore ($4.8B – $6.0B) in capital expenditure over the next three years.

“We have to spend this within the next three years to reach our desired capacity level of 100 million tonnes [of iron ore],” said Amitava Mukherjee, NMDC’s Chairman and Managing Director, during an analyst briefing.

Crucially, NMDC has earmarked ₹2,000 crore to ₹3,000 crore of its current-year budget specifically for overseas asset acquisitions. While NMDC has historically vetted coking coal opportunities in structurally safer jurisdictions like Australia and Indonesia, the compounding financial crisis in Russia’s domestic coal sector has created an opening.

Bogged down by Western export restrictions and a steep drop-off in European demand, Russia’s coal industry has suffered historic losses, exceeding 600 billion rubles ($8.4B) over the last two years. This has prompted Moscow to actively consider selling equity stakes or entire mining enterprises to friendly capital-exporting nations like India.

Geopolitical alignment in the Arctic and Far East

The mineral negotiations represent a broader institutional shift. New Delhi and Moscow are formalising a comprehensive trade and investment cooperation programme that stretches into the Russian Far East and the Arctic zone—regions incredibly rich in unexploited base metals and rare earths. This footprint extension is not limited to Russia. New Delhi is hedging its bets globally, simultaneously exploring rare earth and critical mineral pacts with Australia, Argentina, Chile, and resource-rich African nations.

However, the immediacy of the Indo-Russian mining talks underscores a stark reality for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. While India is broadly on track to meet its climate targets—having crossed the 220 GW milestone of non-fossil electricity capacity on its way to a 500 GW target by 2030—the supply chains required to build that infrastructure remain deeply insecure.

For India’s state-backed industrial giants, pragmatism and resource security are rapidly taking precedence over Western geopolitical alignment.

Venkatesh G