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.
