MINERALS AND POWER RESOURCES IN INDIA

MINERALS AND POWER RESOURCES IN INDIA

Minerals : Geologists define mineral as a “homogenous, naturally occurring substance with a definable internal structure.”

Ore:  Accumulation of minerals mixed with other elements.

Some facts:

Hardest - diamond

Softest – talc

Human mineral intake represents only about 0.3 per cent of our total intake of nutrients, they are so potent and so important that without them we would not be able to utilise the other 99.7 per cent of foodstuffs.

Toothpaste cleans your teeth. Abrasive minerals like silica, limestone, aluminium oxide and various phosphate minerals do the cleaning.

Fluoride which is used to reduce cavities, comes from a mineral fluorite.

Toothpaste are made white with titanium oxide, which comes from minerals called rutile, ilmenite and anatase.

The sparkle in some toothpastes comes from mica.

The toothbrush and tube containing the paste are made of plastics from petroleum.

Over 2000 minerals have been identified, only a few are abundantly found in most of the rocks.

Classification of minerals:

MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF MINERALS

In igneous and metamorphic rocks:

Minerals may occur in the cracks, crevices, faults or joints. The smaller occurrences are called veins and the larger are called lodes.

In sedimentary rocks:

A number of minerals occur in beds or layers. They have been formed as a result of deposition,

accumulation and concentration in horizontal strata. Example Coal

Another group of sedimentary minerals include gypsum, potash salt and sodium salt. These are formed as a result of evaporation especially in arid regions.

In weathered material:

Occur due to the decomposition of surface rocks, and the removal of soluble constituents, leaving a residual mass of weathered material containing ores. Example- Bauxite

In ‘placer deposits’:

Minerals may occur as alluvial deposits in sands of valley floors and the base of hills. Generally contain minerals, which are not corroded by water. Gold, silver, tin and platinum.

In the ocean waters:

Common salt, magnesium and bromine are largely derived from ocean waters. The ocean beds, too, are rich in manganese nodules.

Distribution of mineral in India

India have fairly rich and varied mineral resources but unevenly distributed.

Peninsular rocks contain most of the reserves of coal, metallic minerals, mica and many other non-metallic minerals.

 Sedimentary rocks on the western and eastern flanks of the peninsula, in Gujarat and  Assam have most of the petroleum deposits.

Rajasthan with the rock systems of the peninsula, has reserves of many non-ferrous minerals.

The vast alluvial plains of north India are almost devoid of economic minerals.

S.NO.	Name  of mineral / Power Resource	Features	Largest producers	Availabilty in India	Area
1	Iron ore	Magnetite - 70 per cent. Hematite - 50-60 per cent Limonite, Siderite.	Odisha – 33% Jharkhand – 28%	abundant	1.Odisha-Jharkhand belt (i) Badampahar mines in the Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar districts. (ii) Gua and Noamundi in Singbhum district of Jharkhand 2. Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur belt(Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.) (i) Bailadila range of hills in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. 3.Bellary-Chitradurga-Chikmaglur-Tumkur belt in Karnataka:Kudremukh deposits are known to be one of the largest in the world. 4. Maharashtra-Goa belt: Goa and Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
2	Manganese	Nearly 10 kg of manganese is required to manufacture one tonne of steel.	Odisha- 25% M.P- 24% Karnataka- 22% ( 2009-10)
3	Copper		Rajasthan- 48% M.P- 29% Jharkhand- 16%		1. Khetri mines in Rajasthan 2. Balaghat mines and Malanjkhand  in Madhya Pradesh, 3. Singhbhum district of Jharkhand
4	Bauxite	It is from bauxite, a clay-like substance that alumina and later aluminium is obtained.	Odisha- 34%		1. Panchpatmalideposits in Koraput district ( Odisha) 2. Amarkantak plateau, Maikal hills and the plateau region of Bilaspur-Katni.(M.P and Chattisgarh)
5	Mica	Mica is made up of a series of sheets. A thousand can be layered into a mica sheet of a few cm. high.	Jharkhand	India largest producer	1. Koderma Gaya – Hazaribagh belt of Jharkhand 2. Ajmer and Beawar  in Rajasthan 3. Nellore in Andhra Pradesh
6	Limestone	Limestone is the basic raw material for the cement industry and essential for smelting iron ore in the blast furnace.	Karnataka- 30% Andhara- 20%
7	Coal	Types: 1. Peat 2. Lignite 3. Bituminous 4. Anthracite- Highest quality		Abundantly found fossil fuel	1. Gondwana fields (200 million years in age) 2. Tertiary fields(55 million years Old) Gondwana fields: i. Damodar valley: (a) Jharia ( Jharkhand) (b) Raniganj ( West Bengal) (c) Bokaro( Jharkhand) ii. Talcher in Odisha iii.Singareni in Andhara iv. Korba in Chattishgarh v. Nevyli in Tamilnadu  Tertiary fields: North eastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
8	Petroleum	Petroleum refineries act as a “nodal industry” for synthetic textile, fertiliser and numerous chemical industries.	1. Maharashtra- 63% 2. Gujarat- 18% 3. Assam-16%		Most of the petroleum occurrences in India are associated with anticlines and fault traps in the rock formations of the tertiary age. 1. Mumbai High in Maharashtra 2. Ankeleshwar in Gujarat 3. Digboi, Naharkatiya and Moran-Hugrijan in Assam 4. Barmer,  Rajasthan
9	Natural gas	Energy resource and industrial raw material in the petrochemical industry. The 1700 km long Hazira-Vijaipur - Jagdishpur cross country gas pipeline links Mumbai High and Bassien with the fertilizer, power and industrial complexes in western and northern India.			1. Krishna- Godavari basin. 2. Mumbai High 3. Gulf of Cambay. 4. Andaman and Nicobar islands
10	Thermal power	Thermal electricity is generated by using coal, petroleum and natural gas. There are over 310 thermal power plants in India.	-
11	Nuclear power		Nuclear power plants: 1.Naraura- U.P 2.Rawat Bhata- Rajasthan 3. Kakrapara- Gujarat 4. Tarapur- Maharashtra 5.Kaiga- Karnataka 6. Kalpakkam- Tamilnadu		1. Uranium and Thorium, are available in Jharkhand and theAravalli ranges of Rajasthan 2. The Monazite sands of Kerala is rich in Thorium.
12	Solar Energy	Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity.		India is a tropical country. It has enormous possibilities of tapping solar energy.
13	Wind energy			India has great potential of wind power.	1. The largest wind farm cluster is located in Tamil Nadu fromNagarcoil to Madurai. 2. Jaisalmer Is well known for effective use of wind energy in the country.
14	Tidal energy	Floodgate dams are built across inlets. During high tide water flows into the inlet and gets trapped when the gate is closed. After the tide falls outside the flood gate, the water retained by the floodgate flows back to the sea via a pipe that carries it through a power-generating turbine.			In India the Gulf of Khambhat, the Gulf of Kuchchh in Gujarat on the western coast and Gangetic delta in Sunderban regions of West Bengal provide ideal conditions for utilising tidal energy.
15	Geo Thermal Energy				1. Parvati valley near Manikarn in Himachal Pradesh 2. Puga Valley, Ladakh.

Note:

Kudre in Kannada means horse. The highest peak in the western ghats of Karnataka resembles the face of a horse. The Bailadila hills look like the hump of an ox, and hence its name. Kudremukh

deposits are known to be one of the largest in the world. The ore is transported as slurry through a pipeline to a port near Mangaluru.

Very high grade hematite Iron ore from Bailadila range of hills mines is exported to Japan and South Korea via Vishakhapatnam port.

Due to its excellent di-electric strength, low power loss factor, insulating properties and resistance to high voltage, mica is one of the most indispensable minerals used in electric and electronic industries.

Coal mining in Jowai and Cherapunjee is done by family member in the form of a long narrow tunnel, known as ‘Rat hole’ mining.

After the discovery of aluminium Emperor Napoleon III wore buttons and hooks on his clothes made of aluminium and served food to his more illustrious guests in aluminium utensils and the less honourable ones were served in gold and silver utensils. Thirty years after this incident aluminium bowls were most common with the beggars in Paris.

Firewood and cattle dung cake are most common in rural India. According to one estimate more than 70 per cent energy requirement in rural households is met by these two.