Mineral resources of India

Introduction

A mineral is a solid, naturally occurring combination of physical and chemical compounds. India has a wide variety of mineral resources because of its diverse geological structure. Mineral resources are important as they provide the country with the necessary base for industrial development. India produces around 87 minerals, which includes 4 fuels, 10 metallic, and 47 non-metallic, 3 atomic and 23 minor minerals. The country produces many important minerals like coal, iron ore, manganese ore, mica, bauxite, chromite, diamonds and limestone. Gujarat and Rajasthan are major producers of salt. 

Process of formation of minerals

Minerals form when atoms bond together in a crystal arrangement. For the crystal formation process, required elements in accurate proportions, favourable physical and chemical conditions and sufficient time for the atoms to be arranged is essential. This also impacts the quality of the minerals. 

Three main ways of mineral formation are:

1. Precipitation directly from water with a temperature change
2. Crystallisation from magma due to temperature change
3. Biological changes by the action of organisms

Characteristics of minerals

1. Solid
2. Unevenly distributed over space
3. Definite crystal structure and chemical composition
4. Inverse relationship in quality and quantity of minerals. For example, minerals of good                quality are less in quantity as compared to minerals with more impurities in it.
5. Exhaustible in nature
6. Formed in an inorganic process

Types of Mineral resources

Minerals can be grouped into two categories as metallic and non-metallic based on chemical and physical properties.

Metallic minerals: 

Rare in nature, metallic minerals are naturally formed concentrations known as mineral deposits. Metallic minerals have to be broken apart to process chemically to extract the useful metal from the mineral. Metallic minerals are the sources of metals and provide a strong base for the development of the metallurgical industry. Metallic minerals are classified into ferrous and non-ferrous minerals. Many metallic minerals in India are extracted from the peninsular plateau region in the old crystalline rocks.

Ferrous minerals

The minerals with iron content are called ferrous minerals. Some of the major minerals with economic importance are iron ore, manganese, chromite etc. Ferrous minerals make up to about three fourth  of the total production value of metallic minerals. They form the base for the metallurgical industries like iron, steel and alloys. 

Non-ferrous minerals

Minerals with no iron content in them are called non-ferrous minerals. Some of the non-ferrous minerals found in India are copper and bauxite. However, India has a low occurrence of non-ferrous minerals except bauxite, which is found in abundance. 

Non-metallic minerals

Non-metallic minerals can be divided on the basis of origin. Organic minerals include fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, and inorganic minerals include mica, limestone and graphite, etc. Some of the economically important non-metallic minerals are coal, petroleum, limestone, dolomite, mica, gypsum and phosphate. Non-metallic minerals are used in a variety of industries such as cement, fertilisers and electrical goods. 

Distribution of minerals

The alluvial plains of Northern India are devoid of any minerals. However, most of the metallic minerals in India occur in the peninsular plateau region in the old crystalline rocks. Around 97% of coal deposits are found in the Damodar, Sone, Mahanadi and Godavari valleys. Petroleum deposits are located in the basins of Assam, Gujarat and Mumbai. New reserves of minerals have been found in the Krishna-Godavari and Kaveri basins. Most of the major mineral resources are found in Mangaluru and Kanpur. 

North-Eastern plateau region

This belt extends from Chhotanagpur (Jharkhand), Odisha Plateau, West Bengal to parts of Chhattisgarh. This region has some of the major minerals like iron ore, coal, manganese, bauxite, mica etc.

South-Western plateau region

The region extends over Karnataka, Goa and contiguous Tamil Nadu uplands and Kerala. This region has rich deposits of ferrous metals and bauxite. It is filled with deposits of high-grade iron ore, manganese and limestone. It has minerals like monazite, thorium, bauxite clay, and some parts of Goa have iron ore deposits.

North-Western region

This belt extends from Aravali in Rajasthan to part of Gujarat. This is as some of the major minerals such as Copper, zinc have been major minerals.  Rajasthan is rich in building stones i.e., sandstone, granite, marble. Gypsum and Fuller’s earth deposits are also found in this region. Dolomite and limestone provide raw materials for the cement industry. Gujarat has some newly discovered petroleum deposits.

Distribution of important minerals

Two main types of iron ore found in our country are haematite and magnetite. The iron ore mines are found close to the coalfields in the north-eastern plateau region. Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Goa, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu consist of 95% of the iron ore reserves. 

Manganese

Manganese is an important mineral used for smelting iron ore and manufacturing ferrous alloys. Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the major producers, while Telangana, Goa and Jharkhand are minor producers of the mineral. 

Bauxite

Used for the manufacturing of aluminium, bauxite is found in tertiary deposits of laterite rocks of plateaus and hill ranges in peninsular and coastal regions of India. Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Bolangir and Koraput in Odisha are the major sources for the extraction of bauxite. Other than this, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are rich in bauxite. 

Copper

Copper is an important metal which could be used in the electrical industry for making wires, electric motors, transformers and generators.  The major parts with copper deposits are Singbhum district of Jharkhand, Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh and Jhunjhunu and Alwar districts in Rajasthan.

Mica

Mica is a major component used in electronic and electrical industries. Three major states with mica deposits are Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. 

Coal

Around 80% of the coal deposits in India is of bituminous and non-coking grade. The deposits lie in the Gondwana coalfields of India are located in Damodar Valley, along with the Jharkhand-Bengal coal belt, and the important coalfields in this region are Raniganj, Jharia, Bokaro, Giridih, Karanpura. 

Petroleum

Till 1956, Digboi in Assam was the only place where the oil deposits were found. But, new deposits have been found in Gujarat, Mumbai High, Krishna-Godavari and Kaveri basins. 

Natural gas

It is obtained exclusively from reserves located along the eastern coast and Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Rajasthan and off-shore wells in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Conclusion

Mineral resources are non-renewable in nature, and humans have found a use for almost every mineral on earth. It is a major component for the economies around the world. They are essential as building blocks of geography that control a lot of natural phenomena. According to UNFC, the resources are categorised as ‘reserves’ and ‘resources’. The system defines an economically important and minable part of the measured mineral resource as ‘reserve’. In the ‘resources’ category, those minerals are added which are not economically viable due to various factors. Since these deposits cannot be replenished by humans, it has created interest in understanding that at what rate should it be extracted, and the availability and sustainability.