Mineral and Energy Resources

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Geography Class XII (India: People and Economy), Chapter 5.

Why is one half of India mineral rich and the other half empty?

Put your finger on the Ganga plain and ask a geologist for iron ore. You will be told to look south. India's valuable minerals sit almost entirely in the old plateau of the peninsula, while the vast alluvial plain of the north has no minerals of economic use. The reason is age and rock type. Most valuable minerals are products of pre Palaeozoic times and are associated with the metamorphic and igneous rocks of peninsular India. The plain, built of recently laid river sediment, has none of those rocks near the surface. That single idea explains most of the map in this chapter.

A mineral is a natural substance of organic or inorganic origin with definite chemical and physical properties.

Three characteristics every mineral shares

How minerals are classified

Metallic minerals are the sources of metals: iron ore, copper and gold produce metal.

Where minerals occur: the big pattern

Most metallic minerals occur in the peninsular plateau, in the old crystalline rocks. Over 97 per cent of coal reserves occur in the valleys of the Damodar, Sone, Mahanadi and Godavari. Petroleum lies in the sedimentary basins of Assam, Gujarat and Mumbai High (an offshore region in the Arabian Sea), with new reserves located in the Krishna Godavari and Kaveri basins. Most of the major mineral resources occur to the east of a line joining Mangaluru and Kanpur.

Pause and predict: a student says the Ganga plain has no minerals because it is "too fertile". What is the real reason?

Check your answer: fertility has nothing to do with it. Valuable minerals come with old igneous and metamorphic rocks, and these are exposed on the peninsular plateau. The plain is covered by young alluvium.

Minerals are concentrated in three broad belts, with a fourth in the Himalayas.

Iron ore

India has fairly abundant iron ore and the largest reserve in Asia. The two main ores are haematite and magnetite. Their superior quality creates great demand in international markets, and the mines lie close to the coal fields of the north eastern plateau, which is a big advantage for steel making. About 95 per cent of total reserves lie in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Goa, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Manganese

Manganese is an important raw material for smelting iron ore and for making ferro alloys. It occurs in almost all geological formations but is mainly associated with the Dharwar system.

Non ferrous minerals

India is poorly endowed with non ferrous metallic minerals, except bauxite.

Bauxite is the ore of aluminium. It is found mainly in tertiary deposits associated with laterite rocks, on plateaus or hill ranges of the peninsula and in coastal tracts. Odisha is the largest producer, led by Kalahandi and Sambalpur, with Bolangir and Koraput increasing output. Others include the patlands of Lohardaga in Jharkhand, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar in Gujarat, the Amarkantak plateau in Chhattisgarh, Katni Jabalpur and Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, and Kolaba, Thane, Ratnagiri, Satara, Pune and Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa are minor producers.

Copper is indispensable in the electrical industry for wires, motors, transformers and generators. It is alloyable, malleable and ductile, and is mixed with gold to give jewellery strength.

Non metallic minerals: mica

Among non metallic minerals produced in India, mica is the important one. It is mainly used in electrical and electronic industries, and it can be split into very thin, tough and flexible sheets. Limestone, dolomite and phosphate are extracted for local consumption.

Energy resources

Mineral fuels are essential for power in agriculture, industry, transport and other sectors. Conventional sources are coal, petroleum and natural gas (the fossil fuels) and nuclear energy minerals. They are exhaustible. Non conventional sources are solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and bio energy, which are renewable.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: conventional sources in this chapter are the exhaustible ones: coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear minerals. In reality: "conventional" really means long established in use. Hydroelectric power is also conventional, yet it is renewable. So "conventional" and "non renewable" are not always the same thing. Why it matters: an exam question asking for the non renewable source (the answer is thermal power) is easier once you separate the two words.

Coal

Coal is used for thermal power and for smelting iron ore. It occurs in rock sequences of two geological ages: Gondwana and tertiary. About 80 per cent of India's coal is bituminous and of non coking grade.

Important coal mining centres: Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh, with part of the field in Uttar Pradesh), Korba (Chhattisgarh), Talcher and Rampur (Odisha), Chanda Wardha, Kamptee and Bander (Maharashtra), Singareni (Telangana) and Pandur (Andhra Pradesh).

Petroleum

Crude petroleum is a mix of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons that vary in chemical composition, colour and specific gravity. It powers internal combustion engines in vehicles, railways and aircraft, and its by products feed petrochemical industries such as fertiliser, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibre, medicines, vaseline, lubricants, wax, soap and cosmetics. It is called liquid gold because of its scarcity and diversified uses.

Why it occurs where it does. Crude petroleum occurs in sedimentary rocks of the tertiary period. That fits the earlier pattern: oil is in the sedimentary basins, while solid metals are in the old crystalline rocks.

Crude oil contains impurities and must be refined. India has two kinds of refineries. A field based refinery sits near the oil field, like Digboi. A market based refinery sits near the consuming market, like Barauni.

Pause and predict: which of the two types, field based or market based, would you expect a refinery at a port town handling imported crude to be, and why?

Check your answer: market based. It is near the market and the transport links rather than near an oil field, in the same way that Barauni is, not Digboi.

Natural gas

Natural gas is found with petroleum and is released when crude oil is brought to the surface. It is used as domestic and industrial fuel, in power generation, for heating in industry, and as a raw material in chemical, petrochemical and fertiliser industries. With city gas distribution networks it is becoming a preferred transport fuel (CNG) and cooking fuel (PNG). India's major gas reserves are in Mumbai High and allied fields on the west coast, supplemented by the Cambay basin, and new reserves are in the Krishna Godavari basin on the east coast. Cross country gas pipelines laid by GAIL (India) belong to the One Nation One Grid idea.

Nuclear energy

Uranium and thorium are the important minerals. Uranium occurs in Dharwar rocks, notably along the Singbhum copper belt, in Udaipur, Alwar and Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan), Durg (Chhattisgarh), Bhandara (Maharashtra) and Kullu (Himachal Pradesh). Thorium comes mainly from monazite and ilmenite in the beach sands of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The world's richest monazite deposits occur in Palakkad and Kollam districts of Kerala, near Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and in the Mahanadi river delta in Odisha.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: thorium comes from monazite in the beach sands of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In reality: thorium is not itself a fissile fuel. In a reactor it has to be converted into fissile uranium 233, which is why thorium features in India's long term nuclear plans rather than in today's fuel supply. Why it matters: a question on the "source of nuclear fuel" may want uranium, with thorium as a separate answer.

Two views. For the exam: nuclear energy has emerged as a viable source of power in recent times. Another reading: scholars and planners continue to debate its place. Supporters stress steady, low carbon electricity from a small amount of fuel. Critics point to safety concerns, radioactive waste handling and high set up costs. Why it matters: nuclear power is treated as one more mineral based fuel, so a statement based question will not ask you to take a side.

Non conventional sources

The renewable sources are the sustainable ones: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass. They are more equitably distributed and environment friendly, and after the initial cost they supply cheaper, more sustained energy.

Bio energy also processes waste, improves rural economic life, reduces pollution and pressure on fuel wood, and raises self reliance.

Conserving mineral resources

Sustainable development means combining economic growth with environmental concern, because traditional resource use produces huge waste and other problems. The chapter recommends four steps: develop alternative energy such as solar, wind, wave and geothermal to replace exhaustible resources, recycle metals through scrap (especially copper, lead and zinc, in which India's reserves are meagre), use substitutes for scarce metals, and reduce the export of strategic and scarce minerals so that reserves last longer.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Water Resources deals with the other resource that development depends on, and with its conservation.
• Next: Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context shows how regions rich in resources can still lag behind, and how conservation fits a development plan.
• Related: Secondary Activities explains why steel and cement industries locate near iron ore, coal and limestone, and Structure and Physiography gives the rock systems behind the mineral belts.