Mineral-based Industries

Mineral-based Industries

Mineral-based industries are main industries that get their raw materials from mineral ores. It provides employment to both rural and urban populations. Mineral-based industries include the steel and iron industries, as well as the heavy machinery industries. These are the other industries that use minerals and metals as raw materials.

Iron and Steel Industry

• The iron and steel industry is the fundamental business since a wide range of various enterprises (heavy, medium, and light) rely upon it for their apparatus
• It is a heavy industry since every one of the natural substances, just as completed merchandise, is weighty and cumbersome, involving substantial transportation costs
• The creation and utilisation of steel are frequently viewed as the list of a country’s advancement
• Iron metal, coking coal, and limestone are needed in the proportion of around 4 : 2: 1 to fabricate steel
•  A few amounts of manganese are additionally required to solidify the steel
• Steel is expected to make an assortment of designing products, development material, safeguard, clinical, telephonic, logical hardware, and purchaser merchandise
• The per capita utilisation of steel is low in India when contrasted with the world
• In 2018, India positioned second among the world’s unrefined steelmakers and was the biggest maker of wipe iron
• China is the biggest maker, just as the biggest purchaser of steel
• Most extreme grouping of Iron and Steel ventures: It is found in Chotanagpur level since the minimal expense on iron mineral, high-grade unrefined components in the vicinity, modest work, and immense development potential in the home market

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Unrealized Potential of India

India can’t perform to its maximum capacity due to: 

• Significant expenses and restricted accessibility of coking coal
• Lower usefulness of work
• Sporadic inventory of energy
• Helpless foundation

Problems of the Iron and Steel Industry

• The iron and steel business needs a lot of monetary funds
• The industry lags behind in the use of modern technologies as inputs
• There is a scarcity of high-quality coking coal for smelting iron ore
• Many small iron and steel mills have closed owing to insufficient power supply and rising raw material costs
•  The government has regulated and set the pricing of iron and steel, leaving only a minimal profit for the industry
• Ineffective management and poor operation of the public sector’s iron and steel factories
• Rising iron and steel demand necessitates large-scale imports of iron and steel

Aluminium Smelting Industry

• Aluminium refining is the second most significant metallurgical industry in India
• Properties: It is light, impervious to erosion, a decent transmitter of hotness, flexible, and becomes solid when blended in with different metals 
• An ordinary stockpile of power and a guaranteed wellspring of unrefined substance at least expense are the two prime variables for the business area
• Bauxite, the unrefined substance utilised in the smelters, is an exceptionally cumbersome, dull rosy-hued rock
• It is used to fabricate aeroplanes, utensils, and wires
• It has acquired ubiquity as a substitute for steel, copper, zinc, and lead in various businesses

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Copper Smelting Industry

• In 1924, the Indian Copper Corporation was formed, and a factory was established in Ghatsila, Singhbhum district, Jharkhand
• Following it, the Hindustan Copper Ltd. was founded in 1967
• Then, in 1972, it purchased Indian Copper Corporation
• Since then, Hindustan Copper Ltd. has been the country’s only copper producer
• However, Copper is now produced in just two locations of which one is in Singhbhum district (Jharkhand), near Ghatshila and the  other is in Jhunjhunu district, near Khetri (Rajasthan)
• Maubhandar (Ghatshila) smelter takes copper ore from Mosabani, Rakha, Dhobani Rajdah, Tamapahar, and Turamdih
• Interestingly, all of these areas are in the Singhbhum district
• It was the only copper producer until 1971, producing around 9.3 thousand tonnes of copper per year
• The smelting plant was replaced with a blaster copper unit with a capacity of about 30,000 tonnes

Importance of Mineral-based Industries

Mineral-based industries are equally significant to a country’s economy. Mineral-based businesses rely on minerals such as iron, copper, zinc, and lead. These are the heavy industries that contribute to the country’s infrastructure growth and development.

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Agro-based and Mineral-based Industries: Differences 

Conclusion

Mineral-based enterprises are those that require minerals as raw materials in their manufacturing. For instance, the iron and steel industry is the foundation upon which all other industries are built. Steel output and consumption per capita are indicators of a country’s economic progress.

Iron ore, coal, and limestone are the primary raw materials used in the iron and steel industry. Because the raw materials and completed products of the iron and steel industries are very bulky, these businesses must be situated near mining sites of the needed minerals and be linked by a strong transportation network. Lastly, India is the world’s tenth largest producer of crude steel and the world’s largest producer of sponge iron. India is also the world’s biggest steel exporter.