In a stunning development for the future of technology, India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, just uncovered vast reserves of lithium in the Reasi district of the northern union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) estimated that around 5.9 million metric tons of lithium could be found there. From having no known sources of lithium, the discovery would suddenly place India's reserves as the second-largest on Earth, as much as Australia, China, Portugal, Zimbabwe, the USA, and Argentina added together.

Lithium is one of the world's most critical scarce resources. It's used to make rechargeable batteries found in the world's smartphones, tablets, computers, and electric vehicles.

Talking to a Jammu-based paper, the Daily Excelsior, J&K Mining Secretary Amit Sharma said that going forward teams would be working around the clock to set up an online auction for the various lithium blocks, and was excited for the investment injection into a poor region where horticulture, handicrafts, and tourism make up most of the livelihoods.

"Lithium blocks which are a rare thing and a much demanded global mineral for electric batteries which is the future, [sic] shall be explored and e-auctioned so that J&K figures on the global map so far as availability of lithium reserves in the world are concerned," Sharma asserted.

Many countries, including India which suffers from some of the world's worst air pollution, are looking to convert much of their internal combustion auto market into an electric one for the sake of emissions.

Lithium is key to this project. Chile and Argentina are two of essentially 4 nations that have historically had mineable reserves of lithium, and along with Australia, most of the world's lithium comes from these three nations.

Many critics of electric vehicles point to the world's limited lithium contents as a future obstacle to mass EV production, especially if extensive battery recycling to recover existing lithium isn't taking place.

If Indian miners can bring the supply online soon enough, the chance for the kind of rapid acceleration in battery production needed to fulfill many nations' electrification goals can be possible; not least because more supply means lower prices, allowing more consumers to afford electric vehicles.

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