Minerals and Energy Resources
Non-metallic minerals, mining hazards and conservation
Explain mining's hazards and how to conserve minerals.
Mica. Made of thin plates or leaves; it splits so easily that a thousand sheets can stack up to just a few centimetres. It does not let electricity through and stands up to high voltage with little loss of power, so electric and electronic industries cannot do without it. Found along the north of the Chota Nagpur plateau: the Koderma-Gaya-Hazaribagh belt of Jharkhand leads. Also around Ajmer (Rajasthan) and the Nellore belt (Andhra Pradesh).
Limestone. Found with rocks made of calcium carbonate (or calcium and magnesium carbonates), in sedimentary rocks. It is the basic raw material for cement, and it is needed to smelt iron ore in the blast furnace. Fig. 5.7 shows which states produced the most in 2018-19.
Mining is dangerous.
- For miners: they breathe dust and poisonous fumes and get lung diseases. Roofs can collapse, mines can flood, and coal mines can catch fire.
- For nature: water gets polluted; dumped waste and slurry damage land and soil and pollute streams and rivers.
Without stricter safety rules and environmental laws, mining becomes a 'killer industry'.
Why we must save minerals.
- Only about one per cent of the crust of the earth has minerals we can actually mine.
- They took millions of years to form, and nature makes new ones far too slowly to keep up with how fast we use them. So minerals are finite and non-renewable.
- The more we dig, the deeper we must go and the poorer the ore becomes, so it gets more expensive.
How to save them. Use minerals in a planned, sustainable way. Develop better technology to use low-grade ores cheaply. Recycle metals, use scrap metal, and use substitutes (other materials in place of minerals).
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