Minerals and Energy Resources
Metallic minerals
Locate India's main metallic minerals.
Where are India's minerals? Spread unevenly. The old peninsular rocks hold most of the coal, metals and mica. The sedimentary rocks of Gujarat and Assam hold most of the petroleum. The northern plains, made of river mud, have almost no useful minerals.
Iron ore: the backbone of industry. Ferrous minerals (with iron) make up about three-fourths of the value of all metallic minerals produced. India has plenty of good iron ore.
- Magnetite: the finest ore, up to 70 per cent iron, very magnetic, useful in the electrical industry.
- Hematite: a little less iron (50-60 per cent), but the ore used most by industry.
In 2018-19, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Jharkhand gave 97 per cent of India's iron ore.
Four iron ore belts.
- Odisha-Jharkhand: high-grade hematite at Badampahar (Mayurbhanj, Kendujhar); Gua and Noamundi (Singhbhum, Jharkhand).
- Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur (Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra): the Bailadila hills (shaped like an ox's hump) have 14 deposits of super high-grade hematite, the best for steel. It is exported to Japan and South Korea through Vishakhapatnam.
- Ballari-Chitradurga-Chikkamagaluru-Tumakuru (Karnataka): Kudremukh ('horse face' in Kannada) is one of the world's largest deposits and a 100 per cent export unit. The ore travels as slurry (watery mud) through a pipeline to a port near Mangaluru on the coast.
- Maharashtra-Goa: ore not of very high quality, but mined well and exported through Marmagao.
Manganese. Used to make steel and ferro-manganese alloy: about 10 kg goes into one tonne of steel. Also used for bleaching powder, insecticides and paints. In 2018-19 Madhya Pradesh (33%) and Maharashtra (27%) were the top producers (Fig. 5.3).
Copper: India is short of it. Copper can be beaten into sheets, drawn into wires and carries electricity well, so it goes into electric cables, electronics and chemical industries. India's reserves and output are very low. Main mines: Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), Khetri (Rajasthan), Singhbhum (Jharkhand).
Bauxite and aluminium. Bauxite, a clay-like material, gives alumina and then aluminium. Aluminium is strong like iron, yet very light, carries electricity and is easy to shape. Bauxite is found on the Amarkantak plateau, Maikal hills and Bilaspur-Katni. Odisha was the top producer in 2018-19 (65%); its Panchpatmali deposits in Koraput are the most important.
A story from the book: when aluminium was new, Emperor Napoleon III served his most honoured guests on aluminium plates and the rest on gold and silver. Thirty years later, aluminium bowls were common among the poor of Paris. Value changes when something becomes easy to make.
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