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Chapter 10: Mineral Resources

There is an iron and steel factory at Bhilai, in Chhattisgarh, in east-central India. It does not stand there by accident.

Steel begins as iron ore, and iron ore cannot be manufactured anywhere. It has to be found where the earth put it. In India the ore lies in hill masses, raised bodies of ore-bearing rock that can be worked into from the surface rather than reached by sinking deep shafts. Two such areas lie in the same state as the factory: Bailadilla, in Dantewara district, and Dalli and Rajhara, in Durg district. Their ore is supplied to the works at Bhilai.

Now look at what else lies near that ore. India’s iron ore deposits are found close to the areas that produce coal, dolomite, limestone and manganese, and manganese is exactly what makes steel tough and resistant to rusting. So the plant did not pick a large city, or a convenient road. It settled where several different materials happened to lie within reach of one another, because that is the one thing a steel plant cannot arrange for itself.

That is the question this chapter keeps returning to. Not only what a mineral is, but where it is, and what its being there decides.

Diagram

Fig. 10.A1 Caption: Iron ore in India occurs in hill masses, so the ore body can be worked from the surface. Brief: Photograph of an open iron ore working cut in benches into a hill mass, with the stripped ore face and loaded haulage visible; label the ore face and the bench cuts, and emphasise that the ore is reached from above rather than through a shaft.

NoteCuriosity Corner

Q1. Why do so many of India’s iron and steel plants stand close to the mines rather than close to the cities that buy the steel? Q2. Iron ore is usually pictured as reddish. Why, then, is one of India’s iron ores called ‘Black Ore’? Q3. India is one of the largest producers of iron in Asia, yet it must depend on other countries for its copper. How can one country be rich in one mineral and short of another? Q4. Minerals are sometimes described as a crop that gives no second harvest. What does that mean, and what follows from it? Keep these four questions with you. By the end of this chapter you will be able to answer every one of them from what you have studied here.

10.1 What Minerals Are And How They Are Classified

This chapter studies four minerals — iron ore, manganese, copper and bauxite — what each is used for, and where in India each is mined, with two leading states and their prominent mining areas. Before any of that, we need to be clear about what a mineral actually is.

A mineral is a natural substance, of organic or inorganic origin, with definite chemical and physical properties. Two words in that sentence are doing the work. Natural means nobody manufactures it; it is formed in the earth and can only be found. Definite properties means each mineral behaves in a fixed way — a set composition, a colour, a hardness, sometimes a magnetic pull — and it is those properties that decide what it can be used for.

When a mineral occurs in rock in a form rich enough to be worth digging out and extracting the metal from, we speak of an ore. That is why the chapter says iron ore rather than iron: the metal comes out of the rock only after the rock has been mined and processed.

The Two Great Families

On the basis of their chemical and physical properties, minerals are broadly classified as metallic and non-metallic.

Metallic minerals are the source of metals such as iron, copper and gold. Non-metallic minerals yield no metal at all; they are used for the substance itself, or burnt for the energy locked inside them. The difference is not one of value or usefulness — limestone and coal matter enormously — but of what the mineral gives up when it is worked.

Metallic minerals are then divided again, and the dividing line is a single element. Ferrous minerals are those with iron content, iron ore being the obvious example. Non-ferrous minerals carry no iron, and copper and bauxite belong here.

Q. Copper and bauxite give us metals too, so why are they called non-ferrous?

A. Because they contain no iron. The split inside metallic minerals turns on one element only — iron present, or iron absent.

Non-metallic minerals are either organic or inorganic in origin. The organic ones are the fossil fuels, or mineral fuels, which are derived from buried plant and animal life — coal and petroleum. The inorganic non-metallic minerals include mica, limestone and graphite. The whole classification is set out in Fig. 10.1.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.1 Caption: Minerals are sorted first by whether they yield a metal, and then by what kind of metal or origin they have. Nodes: minerals → metallic minerals / non-metallic minerals; metallic minerals → ferrous minerals (iron ore, manganese) / non-ferrous minerals (copper, bauxite); non-metallic minerals → organic or energy minerals (coal, petroleum) / inorganic minerals (mica, graphite, limestone)

Fig. 10.1 Read it downward: each box splits into two, and the names in brackets are examples of that group, not the complete list. The first split asks whether a metal can be got from the mineral; the second asks which kind. What the chart cannot tell you is where any of these minerals occur, or how much of each India holds.

Three Things That Are True Of Every Mineral

Minerals share certain characteristics, and each of the three has a consequence: (a) Minerals are not evenly distributed over space, so a country may hold a great deal of one mineral and almost none of another, purely because of the rocks beneath it. (b) Quality and quantity are inversely related, which means the good quality minerals occur in smaller quantities than the low quality ones. (c) Minerals are exhaustible over time, because they take a very long time to develop geologically and cannot be replenished immediately when they are needed. They therefore have to be conserved, as they do not have a second crop.

Q4. Minerals are sometimes described as a crop that gives no second harvest. What does that mean, and what follows from it?

A. A field can be sown again next season. A mineral deposit cannot, because it forms geologically over an enormous span of time. What follows is conservation — the ore that is mined today is simply gone from that place.

Why Minerals Decide So Much

The economic development of a country is influenced by the availability of its minerals. Minerals form the base for several large-scale industries, which cannot begin until the raw material is within reach. Even agriculture is influenced by mineral availability, because fertilisers are made from minerals and are then spread on the fields.

India’s Mineral Endowment

India has a rich variety of minerals, and the reason lies underground: the country’s geological structure is varied, so many different rock types, formed under many different conditions, lie within its borders. Different rocks carry different minerals, which is why the variety is so wide.

Judged by world standards, India’s mineral resources are of considerable importance. India ranks fairly high among the producers of iron ore, coal, mica and manganese. It also has extensive reserves of chromite, bauxite and limestone.

10.2 Iron Ore

Iron ore is one of the most widely distributed minerals found in the Earth’s crust. It forms the backbone of modern civilisation and the foundation of our basic industry. Almost everything built at scale — a bridge, a rail track, a factory shed — begins with this one ore.

The Three Varieties Mined In India

Not all iron ore is the same. What separates one variety from another is how much iron the rock actually holds, and that shows in its colour. In India, the main varieties of iron ore found are the following: (a) Haematite is reddish in colour and is therefore also known as ‘Red Ore’. It contains 60 to 70 per cent pure iron and is found in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. (b) Magnetite is dark brown to blackish in colour and is therefore known as ‘Black Ore’. It is the best quality of iron and contains more than 70 per cent of iron; since it possesses magnetic property, it is called magnetite, and it is found in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. (c) Limonite is yellow or light brown in colour and contains 35 to 50 per cent of iron. It occurs in the iron stone group in the Raniganj coalfield, in West Bengal, and is also found in Garhwal in Uttarakhand, in Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh, and in the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh.

Q2. Iron ore is usually pictured as reddish. Why, then, is one of India’s iron ores called ‘Black Ore’?

A. Because colour follows composition. Haematite is reddish and is called ‘Red Ore’; magnetite is dark brown to blackish, so it is called ‘Black Ore’. Magnetite is also the richest of the three, at more than 70 per cent iron.

The three varieties can be sorted by their iron content alone, as Fig. 10.A2 shows.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.A2 Caption: The three Indian varieties of iron ore, ranked by the share of iron in the rock. Nodes: iron ore mined in India → magnetite, more than 70 per cent iron, black ore, best quality → haematite, 60 to 70 per cent iron, red ore → limonite, 35 to 50 per cent iron, yellow to light brown

WC 10.A1 — What An Iron Content Figure Actually Says The situation: the chapter states that the iron ore deposits of Odisha belong to the haematite variety, containing 55 to 68 per cent iron content. We take 100 tonnes of that ore and ask how much of it is iron. The working: the iron in a quantity of ore is \[\text{Iron} = \text{Ore mined} \times \frac{\text{Iron content in per cent}}{100}\] where ore mined is in tonnes and the iron content is the percentage the chapter gives. At the lower figure, \(100 \times \frac{55}{100} = 55\) tonnes of iron. At the upper figure, \(100 \times \frac{68}{100} = 68\) tonnes of iron. So of every 100 tonnes of rock brought out of the ground, between 32 and 45 tonnes is not iron at all.

That leftover is the point of the calculation. A percentage figure is not a label on an ore; it is a statement about how much rock has to be dug, moved and treated to obtain a given weight of metal. It also explains the characteristic met in Section 10.1, that quality and quantity run inversely. Magnetite, at more than 70 per cent, is the best quality iron in India — and it is reported from only two states, while the lower-grade haematite is found in eight.

The distribution of iron ore across the country is shown in Map 10.1.

Map

Map 10.1 Caption: Iron ore in India. Brief: Political outline of India showing the full extent of India as officially defined, with state boundaries dotted, drawn to a scale of 1:24 000 000 with a linear scale bar in km; a single point symbol marks each iron ore centre, and the key must show that symbol against the label ‘Iron Ore’; label the Tropic of Cancer, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Sea, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; name each mining centre plotted; no relief shading, no rivers and no production quantities are to be shown.

Map 10.1 Every symbol is one mining centre, and its position on the map is all it carries. Read the pattern: the symbols crowd across the eastern and central states and again down the peninsular south, and thin out sharply towards the north. What the map cannot tell you is how much ore any centre holds, or which variety it is, or how good that ore is.

10.2.1 Uses Of Iron Ore

Iron ore is put to work in several different ways, and only the first of them is the one most people think of: (a) About 90 per cent of iron ore is used to make steel, because raw iron by itself is not as strong and hard as construction and other purposes require; it is therefore alloyed with other elements to strengthen and harden it, which makes it useful for construction, automobiles and other forms of transportation such as trucks, trains and train tracks. (b) Powdered iron is used in manufacturing metallurgy products, magnets, high frequency cores, auto parts and catalysts. (c) Radioactive iron is used in medicine as a tracer element, and in biochemical and metallurgical research. (d) Iron blue is used in paints, printing inks, plastics, cosmetics such as eye shadow, artist colours, laundry blue, paper dyeing, as a fertilizer ingredient, and in baked enamel finishes for autos and appliances and in industrial finishes. (e) Black iron oxide is used as a pigment in polishing compounds, in metallurgy, in medicine, and in magnetic inks.

10.2.2 Distribution

India is fairly rich in iron deposits, and some amount of iron is found in practically all parts of the country. India is the largest producer of iron in Asia and is one of the largest iron producing countries in the world.

Two facts about how the ore sits in the ground decide much of what follows. The iron ore deposits in India occur as hill masses and are easily accessible. They are also found in close proximity to the areas producing coal, dolomite, limestone and manganese, and it is for this reason that they are well utilised in several iron and steel plants.

Q1. Why do so many of India’s iron and steel plants stand close to the mines rather than close to the cities that buy the steel?

A. Because the ore lies in easily accessible hill masses that also happen to sit near the coal, dolomite, limestone and manganese producing areas. A plant placed there has several of its raw materials within reach at once.

The main iron ore deposit areas in India are the following: (a) In Chhattisgarh, in east-central India, the important areas are Bailadilla in Dantewara district and Dalli and Rajhara in Durg district, and these deposits are supplied to the iron and steel factory at Bhilai. (b) In Jharkhand, in eastern India, a large deposit of iron ore has been found at Chiria in Singhbhum district, and Singhbhum and Palamau are the important districts. (c) In Odisha, on the east coast, the deposits belong to the haematite variety containing 55 to 68 per cent iron content, and Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Cuttack and Koraput have iron ore deposits. (d) The steel plants located at Asansol, Bokaro, Durgapur, Jamshedpur and Rourkela receive their supplies of iron ore from these deposits in Odisha. (e) Karnataka, in the southern peninsula, has large reserves of magnetite and haematite, and the Bababudan hills in Chikmagalur district, the Bellary and Hospet districts, and the Shimoga and Chitradurga districts are important areas for iron ore. (f) Kudremukh, also in Chikmagalur district, has estimated deposits of 1,000 million tonnes, and these deposits provide raw material for the Bhadravati Iron Works. (g) Goa, on the west coast, has vast deposits of iron ore and supplies iron for domestic use as well as for export, although the iron ore of Goa is of the inferior limonite and siderite variety, with the richer and larger deposits confined to north Goa. (h) In Andhra Pradesh, the iron ore producing areas are scattered through Anantpur, Krishna, Kurnool, Cuddapah and Nellore, and the iron content in these deposits varies from 55 to 62 per cent. (i) In Tamil Nadu, iron ore is found in Salem, North Arcot, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore and Madurai. (j) In Maharashtra, iron ore deposits are found in Ratnagiri, Chandrapur and Bhandara districts. (k) In Rajasthan, iron ore deposits are found in Moriza in Bhilwara and Udaipur districts. (l) In Jharkhand, iron ore deposits are also found in Noamundi and Gua in Singhbhum district.

The other areas where deposits of iron ore are prevalent include Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana.

Not all of this ore stays in the country. The main iron ore exporting ports in India are Mormugao and Visakhapatnam, and it is worth noticing why a chapter on minerals bothers to name a port at all. A deposit is fixed where it lies, so the only thing that can move is the ore itself. The port is the point at which an inland deposit reaches a buyer beyond the country.

10.3 Manganese

Manganese is a black, hard and iron-like metal which occurs as a natural oxide. Occurring as an oxide means the metal is already combined with oxygen in the rock, so it has to be separated out before it can be used.

Two of its jobs matter most. Manganese is an important raw material for the smelting of iron ore, that is, for the heating of the ore until the metal in it can be drawn off. It is also used for manufacturing ferro alloys, which are alloys in which iron is combined with another metal to give it a property it does not have on its own.

Q. Manganese is described as iron-like. Does that make it iron?

A. No. It is a separate metal that occurs as a natural oxide. It resembles iron in being black and hard, and much of its work is done inside the iron and steel industry.

10.3.1 Uses Of Manganese

Manganese is put to work in industry, and it is also needed in living things, which is unusual for a metallic mineral. Its uses are the following: (a) Manganese is used to make steel tough and resistant to rusting, and it is therefore an important raw material for the iron and steel industry. (b) Manganese is used in the manufacturing of black enamel, in chemical industries for manufacturing bleaching powder, and in electrical and glass industries. (c) Manganese is used to form a number of important alloys. (d) Manganese is used in dry cell batteries. (e) Manganese is essential for plant growth and is involved in the reduction of nitrates in green plants and algae, when it is distributed in the correct amount. (f) Some amount of manganese is needed for humans and animals, as it aids in the action of many enzymes involved in the metabolism of fats and proteins; an excess of this element in plants and animals is toxic. (g) Manganese can also regulate blood sugar levels and supports the immune system, and it is involved in bone development and reproduction; it is a component of various vitamins, such as vitamin K and the B-complex group, which are vital in the average human body.

Read those seven together and a pattern appears. The same element behaves in two quite separate worlds, as Fig. 10.A3 sets out, and in the living world the amount matters as much as the presence.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.A3 Caption: Manganese does two different kinds of work, and in living things the quantity decides which. Nodes: manganese → industrial uses → toughening steel and resisting rust / black enamel, bleaching powder, electrical and glass industries / important alloys / dry cell batteries; manganese → biological uses → in plants, reduction of nitrates and growth / in humans and animals, enzyme action, blood sugar, immunity, bone development, vitamins; biological uses → correct amount? yes → essential; no, in excess → toxic

10.3.2 Distribution

Manganese ore found in India is of good quality and therefore is in great demand in the world market. Its main buyers are the USA, Japan, the UK, France, the Netherlands, West Germany and Belgium.

Good Ore And A World Market Good quality manganese ore in India → strong demand for it in the world market → buyers in the USA, Japan, the UK, France, the Netherlands, West Germany and Belgium → the ore is sold abroad while it also feeds India’s own iron and steel industry.

Manganese is mined in the following areas: (a) In Andhra Pradesh, on the south-eastern coast, it is mined at Srikakulam and Vijayanagaram. (b) In Telangana, in the southern interior, it is mined at Adilabad. (c) In Goa, on the west coast, it is mined at Sanguem. (d) In Jharkhand, in eastern India, it is mined at Singhbhum, Palamau and Chaibasa. (e) In Karnataka, in the southern peninsula, it is mined at Sandur, Shimoga, Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Belagavi, North Kanara and Davangere. (f) In Madhya Pradesh, in central India, it is mined at Chhindwara, Balaghat, Mandla and Jabalpur. (g) In Maharashtra, in western India, it is mined at Nagpur and Bhandara. (h) In Odisha, on the east coast, it is mined at Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Talcher, Sundargarh, Bonai and Koraput. (i) In Rajasthan, in north-western India, it is mined at Banswara, Udaipur and Pali.

Where these areas lie in relation to one another is shown in Map 10.2. Several of the names on it were also on the iron ore map, which is exactly what the earlier statement about proximity would lead you to expect.

Map

Map 10.2 Caption: Manganese distribution in India. Brief: Political outline of India showing the full extent of India as officially defined, with state boundaries dotted, drawn to a scale of 1:24 000 000 with a linear scale bar in km; a single triangular point symbol marks each manganese mining area, and the key must show that symbol against the label ‘Manganese’; label the Tropic of Cancer, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Sea, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; name each mining area plotted; no relief shading, no rivers and no production quantities are to be shown.

Map 10.2 Each triangle is one mining area, plotted by position only. The pattern is a broad belt across central and peninsular India, running from the west coast to the east, with a thinner scatter in the north-west and nothing in the far north. What the map does not show is how much ore each area yields, or how good it is, or which of these areas the export buyers are actually drawing on.

10.4 Copper

Copper is an important non-ferrous metal, and it is the earliest metal used by man. In nature, copper occurs in the native form and in three principal combinations, that is, sulphides, oxides and carbonates. The native form means the metal is found as itself, and the three combinations mean it is found chemically joined to sulphur, to oxygen or to carbonate.

Q. Why should it matter that copper occurs in the native form?

A. Because the metal is already there in the rock, not locked inside a compound that must first be broken open. That helps explain how copper could be the earliest metal used by man.

10.4.1 Uses

Copper’s uses follow directly from three of its physical properties: it carries electricity well, it can be hammered into shape, and it can be drawn out without snapping. Its main uses are the following: (a) Copper is a good conductor of electricity and is highly malleable and ductile, meaning it can be beaten into sheets and drawn out into thin wire, and it is therefore used for making electric wires and other equipment. (b) Copper is used in automobile and defence industries. (c) Copper is alloyed with iron and nickel to make stainless steel, which is used to make utensils and other objects. An alloy is a metal deliberately combined with one or more other metals to give it a property none of them has alone. (d) Copper is alloyed with zinc to form brass, and with tin to make bronze. (e) Copper is used in building construction for roofing and plumbing. (f) Copper is used in the shipbuilding industry.

Brass and bronze are easy to confuse, and the difference lies entirely in the second metal. Brass is copper with zinc added, while bronze is copper with tin added. What they share is the copper, which is why both are worked metals rather than natural minerals — neither can be dug out of the ground. Fig. 10.A4 sets out what copper becomes when other metals are added to it.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.A4 Caption: Copper is rarely used alone — adding a second metal turns it into something with new properties. Nodes: copper → alone → electric wires, equipment, roofing, plumbing, shipbuilding; copper → add zinc → brass; copper → add tin → bronze; copper → add iron and nickel → stainless steel → utensils and other objects

10.4.2 Distribution

India is critically deficient in copper and has to depend on supplies from outside the country for its needs. This is worth pausing on, because it sits beside a fact from earlier in the chapter: the same country that ranks fairly high among the world’s producers of iron ore cannot meet its own demand for copper.

Q3. India is one of the largest producers of iron in Asia, yet it must depend on other countries for its copper. How can one country be rich in one mineral and short of another?

A. Because minerals are not evenly distributed over space. What a country holds depends on the rocks beneath it, never on what it happens to need.

The main areas where copper is found in India are the following: (a) In Madhya Pradesh, copper is found at Balaghat, Betul and Jabalpur. (b) In Rajasthan, the Khetri belt in Jhunjhunu district and Dariba in Alwar district are the leading areas, along with Ajmer, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Pali, Rajasamad, Sikar, Sirohi and Udaipur. (c) In Maharashtra, copper is found at Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Nagpur. (d) In Jharkhand, copper is found in Singhbhum district.

In addition, small deposits of copper are also found in Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya and West Bengal. Copper, then, is not absent from India; it is thinly spread, which is a different problem. Map 10.3 shows where it is mined, together with the deposits of bauxite that the next section deals with.

Map

Map 10.3 Caption: Bauxite and copper distribution in India. Brief: Political outline of India showing the full extent of India as officially defined, with state boundaries dotted, drawn to a scale of 1:24 000 000 with a linear scale bar in km; two distinct point symbols are used, a triangle for copper and a circle for bauxite, and the key must show both against the labels ‘Copper’ and ‘Bauxite’; label the Tropic of Cancer, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Sea, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; name each mining centre plotted; no relief shading, no rivers and no production quantities are to be shown.

Map 10.3 This map carries two minerals at once, so read the key first: one symbol is copper, the other bauxite. The copper symbols crowd into the north-west and the centre; the bauxite symbols run through the peninsular interior and along the coasts. Where two symbols sit close together, all it means is that both minerals are worked in that region, not that they occur in the same rock. Neither symbol shows quantity.

10.5 Bauxite

Bauxite is an oxide of aluminium, which means the aluminium in it is already combined with oxygen and has to be separated out before the metal can be used. It is found mainly in tertiary deposits, that is, in rocks laid down in one of the more recent stretches of geological time.

Bauxite is associated with laterite rocks, which are rocks left rich in iron and aluminium after heavy rain has washed the more soluble matter out of them. These occur extensively either on the plateau or the hill ranges of Peninsular India, the great triangular upland lying south of the northern plains, and also in the coastal tracts of the country.

Q. If aluminium is so widely used, why do we never speak of an aluminium mine?

A. Because aluminium is not lying in the ground as a metal. What is mined is bauxite, its oxide, and the metal is taken out of it afterwards.

Why Bauxite Sits Where It Does Heavy rain acts on rock → soluble matter is washed away and laterite is left behind → bauxite is associated with these laterite rocks → the deposits are therefore found on the plateaus, hill ranges and coastal tracts of Peninsular India, and not spread evenly across the country.

10.5.1 Uses

Almost every use of bauxite is really a use of the metal taken out of it, and each one follows from a property of that metal: (a) Bauxite is the main source of aluminium, which is a lightweight, strong and rust resistant metal. (b) Aluminium is used in aircrafts, automobiles, rail wagons, coaches, the shipping industry and household appliances. (c) It is used in the electrical equipment industry and for transmitting electricity, because it is a good conductor of electricity. (d) Pure aluminium is the best material for making headlight reflectors and mirrors, and it is used in telescopes.

Notice how the first property drives the second group of uses. A metal that is light but still strong is exactly what a machine that has to move needs, which is why aluminium turns up in aircraft, in rail coaches and in ships. Fig. 10.A5 traces the chain from the ore to those uses.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.A5 Caption: Every use of bauxite runs through the metal that is taken out of it. Nodes: bauxite, an oxide of aluminium → aluminium, lightweight, strong, rust resistant → things that must move: aircrafts, automobiles, rail wagons, coaches, shipping → household appliances; aluminium → good conductor of electricity → electrical equipment industry, transmitting electricity; aluminium in pure form → headlight reflectors, mirrors, telescopes

10.5.2 Distribution

There are extensive deposits of bauxite in India, and unlike copper this is a mineral the country holds in quantity. The main reserves are found in the following states: (a) In Goa, the reserves are at Mopa and Pernem. (b) In Odisha, they are at Kalahandi and Sambalpur. (c) In Gujarat, on the north-western coast, they are at Jamnagar, Kheda, Surat and Kutch. (d) In Madhya Pradesh, they are at Jabalpur, Balaghat, Shahdol, Mandla and the Amarkantak Plateau. (e) In Chhattisgarh, they are at Durg, Bilaspur and Raigarh. (f) In Jharkhand, they are in Palamau, Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla, Latehar and Dumka districts. (g) In Maharashtra, they are at Thane, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Satara. (h) In Karnataka, they are at Belagavi, mainly at the Karle hills. (i) In Tamil Nadu, they are at Salem, Nilgiri, Madurai and Coimbatore.

The largest integrated aluminium plant in India is at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh. It gets its supply of bauxite from the Amarkantak plateau and from Ranchi.

The Aluminium Plant At Renukoot Factors: the plant draws its bauxite from the Amarkantak plateau and from Ranchi, both of which the chapter lists among the reserves. The decisive one: the supply of the ore itself, since bauxite must be brought to the plant before any aluminium can be made. Move it: if those two sources were worked out, the plant would have lost the one thing that put it there.

10.6 Summary

  1. A mineral is a natural substance, of organic or inorganic origin, with definite chemical and physical properties. It is formed in the earth and can only be found, never manufactured.
  2. On the basis of those properties, minerals are broadly classified as metallic and non-metallic.
    1. Metallic minerals are the source of metals such as iron, copper and gold, and they divide again into ferrous minerals, which have iron content, and non-ferrous minerals, which do not.
    2. Non-metallic minerals are organic or inorganic in origin; the organic ones are the mineral fuels formed from buried plant and animal life, such as coal and petroleum, while the inorganic ones include mica, limestone and graphite.
  3. Minerals have three characteristics, and each carries a consequence.
    1. They are not evenly distributed over space.
    2. Quality and quantity are inversely related, so good quality minerals occur in smaller quantities than low quality ones.
    3. They are exhaustible, because they take a long time to develop geologically and cannot be replenished immediately, so they must be conserved as they have no second crop.
  4. The economic development of a country is influenced by the availability of minerals, which form the base for several large-scale industries and also reach agriculture in the form of fertilisers.
  5. India has a rich variety of minerals because of its varied geological structure, and its mineral resources are of considerable importance by world standards.
    1. India ranks fairly high among the producers of iron ore, coal, mica and manganese.
    2. It also has extensive reserves of chromite, bauxite and limestone.
  6. Iron ore is one of the most widely distributed minerals in the Earth’s crust and forms the backbone of modern civilisation and the foundation of our basic industry. Three varieties are mined in India.
    1. Haematite, or ‘Red Ore’, is reddish and contains 60 to 70 per cent pure iron.
    2. Magnetite, or ‘Black Ore’, is dark brown to blackish, contains more than 70 per cent iron, is the best quality, and is so named because it possesses magnetic property.
    3. Limonite is yellow to light brown and contains only 35 to 50 per cent of iron.
  7. About 90 per cent of iron ore is used to make steel, because raw iron must be alloyed to be strong and hard enough for construction and transport. Powdered iron, radioactive iron, iron blue and black iron oxide account for its other uses.
  8. India is the largest producer of iron in Asia and one of the largest in the world, and the way its ore sits in the ground explains much of its use.
    1. The deposits occur as hill masses and are easily accessible.
    2. They lie close to the areas producing coal, dolomite, limestone and manganese, so they are well utilised in several iron and steel plants.
    3. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the main producing states, and Mormugao and Visakhapatnam are the main exporting ports.
  9. Manganese is a black, hard and iron-like metal occurring as a natural oxide. It is an important raw material for the smelting of iron ore and for manufacturing ferro alloys.
  10. Manganese works in two separate worlds.
  1. In industry it makes steel tough and resistant to rusting, and it is used in black enamel, bleaching powder, electrical and glass industries, alloys and dry cell batteries.
  2. In living things it is essential for plant growth and the reduction of nitrates, and in humans and animals it aids enzyme action, regulates blood sugar, supports immunity and bone development, and forms part of vitamin K and the B-complex group — but an excess of it is toxic.
  1. Indian manganese ore is of good quality and is in great demand in the world market. It is mined in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
  2. Copper is an important non-ferrous metal and the earliest metal used by man, occurring in the native form and as sulphides, oxides and carbonates.
  1. It is a good conductor of electricity and is highly malleable and ductile, so it is used for electric wires, in automobile, defence and shipbuilding industries, and in roofing and plumbing.
  2. Alloyed with zinc it forms brass, with tin it forms bronze, and with iron and nickel it makes stainless steel.
  3. India is critically deficient in copper, which is worked mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
  1. Bauxite is an oxide of aluminium, found mainly in tertiary deposits and associated with laterite rocks on the plateaus, hill ranges and coastal tracts of Peninsular India.
  1. It is the main source of aluminium, a lightweight, strong and rust resistant metal used in aircrafts, automobiles, rail wagons, coaches, shipping and household appliances.
  2. Aluminium also conducts electricity well, and in its pure form it is the best material for headlight reflectors, mirrors and telescopes.
  3. The main reserves lie in Goa, Odisha, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and the largest integrated aluminium plant, at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh, draws its bauxite from the Amarkantak plateau and Ranchi.

Flowchart

Fig. 10.A6 Caption: The whole chapter on one chain — from how minerals are grouped to what the four studied minerals finally become. Nodes: minerals → metallic / non-metallic; non-metallic → organic or energy minerals, coal and petroleum / inorganic minerals, mica, graphite and limestone; metallic → ferrous / non-ferrous; ferrous → iron ore → haematite, magnetite, limonite → about 90 per cent goes to steel; ferrous → manganese → steel made tough and rust resistant, ferro alloys, batteries, and a nutrient in living things; non-ferrous → copper → electric wires, brass, bronze, stainless steel; non-ferrous → bauxite → aluminium → aircrafts, wagons, appliances, electricity transmission

What This Chapter Cannot Tell You

The chapter tells you where each mineral is worked, but not how much comes out of any of these places, and its maps carry a symbol for a mining centre without any measure of size, grade or how long the deposit will last. That silence matters most for the one claim the chapter makes about all minerals — that they are exhaustible — because nothing here lets you judge how close any Indian deposit is to that point. The list of countries buying Indian manganese is also a list from a particular moment, not a permanent fact; trade shifts, and a textbook page does not. ## 10.7 Check Your Concepts

  1. Study Fig. 10.1 and answer the following:
    1. Name the group and sub-group to which each of the four minerals studied in this chapter belongs.
    2. State what decides whether a metallic mineral is placed among the ferrous or the non-ferrous minerals.
  2. The iron ore deposits of Andhra Pradesh have an iron content varying from 55 to 62 per cent. Calculate the least and the greatest quantity of iron that 500 tonnes of this ore could yield, showing every step of your working.
  3. The largest integrated aluminium plant in India is at Renukoot. Using only what this chapter tells you, explain why that location makes sense, and state what change would take away the reason for it.
  4. Map 10.3 marks each mining centre with a single symbol.
    1. State one thing the map cannot tell you about a deposit that is shown on it.
    2. Explain why that silence matters, given what the chapter says about minerals being exhaustible.
  5. What is the difference between metallic and non-metallic minerals?
  6. Give a reason for each of the following:
    1. Manganese is an important raw material in the iron and steel industry.
    2. Bauxite is used in the electrical equipment industry.
    3. Raw iron needs to be alloyed in order to be useful in the construction and automobile industry.
  7. Answer the following:
    1. Name two characteristics of iron ore deposits in India that help them to be used to best advantage in the iron and steel plants.
    2. Name two industries that require iron ore as a raw material.
  8. On an outline map of India, mark and name two centres where each of these minerals is found:
    1. Iron ore
    2. Manganese
    3. Copper
    4. Bauxite

10.8 Case-Based Questions

  1. With reference to Fig. 10.2, answer the following:

Diagram

Fig. 10.2 Caption: The object in this photograph is built largely from one of the metals studied in this chapter. Brief: Photograph of a passenger aircraft in flight or on the ground, printed beside the question; no labels and no captions on the image itself, so that the student must identify the metal from the object.

  1. Which ore is used to manufacture the object in the picture?
  2. Which qualities of the ore make it suitable for this purpose?
  1. Suppose you live in an area which has rich deposits of coal, dolomite, limestone and manganese, and two exporting ports. Which industry can be developed in your area, and why?