Mineral and Energy Resources
Classification of Resources
Resources Depending based on the state of development, can be classified as:
- Potential: Resources have been found but not utilised. Available but exact quantity and quality are unknown. For example, Rajasthan and Gujarat have enormous potential for solar Energy.
- Developed or actual resources: Resources that are surveyed and their quality and quantity have been determined for utilisation. The development of resources depends on technology and the level of feasibility. These resources satisfy four criteria.
- Quantity and quality known: The quantity and quality of developed resources have been defined for use.
- Technically accessible: Technology is available and feasible.
- Economically viable: The cost of mining is less than the market rate of the mineral.
- Culturally acceptable: Developed resources are culturally appropriate.
Stock and Reserves:
- Stock: Potential to satisfy human needs but a dearth of appropriate technology to access these. For example, Hydrogen Nuclear power.
- Reserves: Subset of Stock, can be put into use with the help of existing technology. Economic unviability. For example, Unbuilt dam.
Major Minerals in India
| Ferrous | Non-Ferrous | Fuel | Precious | Others |
|
Iron ore Chromite Manganese (7th largest reserve in the world 2013) [No Nickel] |
Magnesium Lead Zinc Bauxite (5th largest reserve in the world – 2013) |
Uranium Coal (4th largest reserves in the world) Thorium Natural gas |
Gold Tungsten Diamond Quartz |
Feldspar Mica Limestone Kyanite and Sillimanite (both Al2SiO5 – used for making Alumina-Al2O3) |
- MMRDA 1957 – defines – “minor minerals” as building stones, gravel, ordinary clay, ordinary sand other than sand used for prescribed purposes, and any other mineral that the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a minor mineral;
- Anything related to construction is Minor. Therefore, Bentonite is a minor mineral.
- Section 15: The State Government may, by notification… make rules for, regulating the grant of quarry leases, mining leases or other mineral concessions in respect of minor minerals and for purposes connected therewith.
Types of Mineral Resources:
- Minerals are unevenly distributed over the earth.
- There is an inverse relationship between quality and quantity of minerals.
- All minerals are exhaustible over time – takes a long time to geologically develop.
Distribution of Minerals in India:
Mostly in crystalline regions in old Peninsular rocks.
Most of the reserves are located in the east of the line linking Mangalore and Kanpur. In three mineral belts in India
Three Mineral belts in India
North-Eastern Plateau Region:
It includes the Chhotanagpur Plateau, Odisha Plateau, West Bengal, and parts of Chhattisgarh.
Minerals: Iron, Coal, Manganese (Mn), Bauxite, and Mica.
South-Western Plateau Region:
It includes Karnataka, Goa, contiguous Tamil Nadu uplands, and Kerala.
- Rich in Iron ore, Manganese, and limestone; coal deposits are found except for the Neyveli lignite (Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu).
- This belt does not have as diversified mineral deposits as the North-Eastern belt.
- Kerala: Deposits of Monazite, thorium, and bauxite clay.
- Goa: Iron ore deposits.
North-Western Region:
It extends along the Aravalli Range in Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat. Minerals are associated with the Dhawar system of rocks. (This system was first found in Dharwar, Karnataka, and is characterized by highly metamorphosed forms of sedimentary Archaean gneisses and schists, which contain valuable minerals and are the oldest in India).
- Major minerals: Copper and Zinc.
- Rajasthan is rich in building stones such as Sandstone, Granite, Marble, Gypsum, and Fuller’s Earth. Dolomite and limestone provide raw materials for the cement industry.
- Gujarat: Petroleum deposits.
The Himalayan belt is another mineral belt where copper, lead, zinc, cobalt and tungsten are known to occur. They occur in both the eastern and western parts. Assam Valley has mineral oil deposits.
Ferrous Mineral:
Iron Ore:
It has the largest reserve of iron ore in Asia: haematite and magnetite.
- Magnetite: Finest; iron content up to 70%. Excellent magnetic qualities, especially valuable in the electrical industry.
- Hematite: Iron 50-60%. The most important industrial iron ore in terms of quantity used.
Iron ore mines occur close to coal fields in the N-E plateau – which adds to the advantage.
Total Iron reserves in the country:
India has 20bn tonnes (2004-05) of Iron ore reserves; 95% of it is in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
- Odisha-Jharkhand belt is the most important Iron Ore Belt in India.
- Odisha: in series of hill ranges in:
- Sundergarh (Bonai mines),
- Mayurbhanj (Gurumahisani, Sulaipet and Badampur) and
- Kirubur in Kendujhar;
- Jharkhand has some oldest mines: Most of them in the Poorbi and Pashcimi Singbhum districts.
- This belt extends to Durg, Dantevada and Bailadia in Chhattisgarh. Dalli and Rajhara in Durg are important mines.
- Bellary-Chitraduga-Chikmaglur-Tumkur belt (Karnataka):
- It occurs in the Sandur-Hospet area of Bellary district, Baba Budan hills and Kudremuck in Chikmagalur district and parts of Shimoga, Chitradurg and Tumkur district.
- Kudremukhi in Western Ghats are 100% export units. It is one of the largest iron ore deposits in the world. The ore from this unit (situated on the east of the Western Ghat, located at a higher altitude) is transported as slurry to a port near Mangaluru (at sea level).
- Maharashtra-Goa belt:
- It extends from Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra to Goa.
- The Iron ore found here is not of very high quality. However, it is efficiently exploited and the ore is exported through Marmango port.
- Maharashtra: Chandrapur, Bhandara and Ratnagiri districts.
- Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur belt (triangle): It extends into Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
- 14 deposits of super high-grade hematite iron ore are found in the Bailadia range in Chhattisgarh. It has the best physical properties for making steel.
- Iron ore from here is exported to Japan and South Korea via Vishakhapatnam.
Other Areas:
- Andhra Pradesh: Kurnool, Cuddapah, Anantpur of Rayalseema.
- Telangana: Warangal and Karimnagar(both NE of Hyderabad)
- Salem and Nilgiris districts of Tamil Nadu
Other Minerals found in the Ferrous Mineral belt
We also find Chromium, Nickel and Manganese in these belts.
Manganese:
Raw material for the smelting of Iron ore. Found in almost all formations but mainly associated with the Dharwar system).
- Odisha is the leading producer Central part of Iron belt of India: Bonai (sundergarh), Kendujahar, Sundergarh, Gangpur, Koraput, Kalahandi and Bolangir.
- Karnataka: Dharwar, Bellary, Belgaum, N. Canara, Chikmanglur, Shimoga, Chitradurga and Tumkur
- Maharashtra: Nagpur, Bhandara and Ratangiri distt.(but far located from steel plants)
- Mn belt in MP extends into Balagahat-Chhindwara-Nimar-Mandla and Jhabua district.
Non-Ferrous Minerals:
Bauxite:
Aluminium ore is known as Bauxite. It is mainly found in tertiary deposits (deposits from the Cenozoic geological period) and is associated with laterite rocks occurring extensively either on the plateau or hill ranges of peninsular India and also in coastal tracts of the country.
- Odisha produces 45% of Bauxite: Kalahandi and Sambalpur are the leading producers. Bolangir and Koraput have been increasing production.
- Patlands of Jharkhand in Lohardaga have rich deposits.
- Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, MP and Maharashtra are other major producers.
- Bhavnagar and Jamnagar in Gujarat have major deposits.
- Chhattisgarh has bauxite deposits in the Amarkantak plateau
- Katni-Jabalpur area and Balaghat in M.P. have important deposits of bauxite.
- Kolaba, Thane, Ratnagiri, Satara, Pune and Kolhapur in Maharashtra are important producers.
- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa are minor producers of bauxite.
Copper:
Copper is Alloyable, Malleable, ductile and a good conductor of electricity and therefore has great utility in electrical and electronic devices; especially in wires.
Copper is also used to give strength to Gold.
It is mainly found in:
- Singhbhum district in Jharkhand,
- Balaghat district in MP and
- Jhunjhunu (Khetri) and Alwar districts in Rajasthan.
Minor deposits are found in Agnigundala in Guntur District (Andhra), Chitradurg and Hasan districts (Karnataka) and South Arcot district (Tamil Nadu).
Non-Metallic Mineral:
Mica:
It is used in the electronics and electrical industries due to several advantages:
- It has a high Di-electric strength, i.e. it acts as a very good insulator. Therefore, it can also be used as a dielectric material in capacitors.
- Insulating material – resistance to high voltage.
- Low power loss factor
- It can be split into very thin sheets – tough and flexible. It is made up of a series of plates or leaves. Splits into micro-thin sheets.
- Can be clear, black, green, red yellow or brown.
It is mainly found in:
- Jharkhand: High-quality Mica: belt extending over a distance of about 150 km, in length and about 22 km, in width in the lower Hazaribagh Plateau (in Kodarma).
- Andhra Pradesh: Nellore district produces the best quality mica.
- Rajasthan mica belt extends for about 320 km from Jaipur to Bhilwara and around Udaipur.
- Karnataka: Mica deposits also occur in Mysore and Hasan,
- TN: Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, Madurai and Kanniyakumari,
- Other: Alleppey in Kerala, Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Purulia and Bankura in West Bengal.
Energy Resources:
Coal:
The most abundant fossil fuel. It comes in a variety of forms depending on the degree of compression, depth and time of burial (of fossil):
- Peat: Decaying plants in swamps. Low Carbon content (below 35%), high moisture and low heating capacity.
- Lignite: Grade brown coal. Soft, high moisture. Used for electricity generation.
- Principal Reserves: Neyveli (Tamil Nadu), Lakhimpur (Assam), Karewa (J&K)
- Bituminous: Been buried deep, subjected to increased temperature. Most popular.
- Jharkhand (Jharia, Bokaro), Odisha, West Bengal (Raniganj), Chhattisgarh (Korba), and Madhya Pradesh
- Anthracite: Hard, high specific value for the smelting of Iron in the blast furnace. Metallurgical coal.
Occurs in rock sequences mainly of two geological ages, namely: Over 97% of coal is in Damodar, Son, Mahanadi and Godavari.
Gondwana Deposits
India’s 99% deposits occur here. These were formed 600-300Mya.
About 80% of Indian coal deposits are of the bituminous type and are of non-coking grade, and have the following problems:
- High Ash content, low Sulphur low Phosphorous;
- Low calorific value and high ash fusion temperature (when ash melts).
- A high proportion of volatile compounds.
Therefore, these are converted to coke before use.
| Converting Biitumenous Coal to Coke |
|
It is easy to drive away volatile substances from Bituminous Coal and increase its efficiency. For this, Coal is heated to 1000-1100oC in the absence of air. This process converts it to coke and therefore the process is known as Coking. Petroleum Coke is another means of making Coke. It is Produced as a by-product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in Cracking. |
Areas of Binuminous Deposits in India:
River valleys of Damodar(largest), Mahanadi, Godavari, Son and Narmada hold almost all of these deposits.
- Damodar Valley:
- Jharia (largest coal field in India),
- Raniganhj (second largest coal field in India),
- Singrauli in MP (part of field in UP),
- Korba in Chhattisgarh,
- Other sites in Damodar Valley: Bokaro, Giridih, Karanpura, Chandrapur, Tatapani, Talcher, Himgiri etc.
- Other Mining centre:
- Talcher and Rampur in Orissa, Chanda–Wardha,
- Kamptee and Bander in Maharashtra and
- Singareni and Pandur in Telangana.
- Karharbari Formation istheoldest in India.
Tertiary deposits (1%):
Tertiary deposits of Coal are found in four north-eastern states of India, i.e. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
- It is extracted from Darangiri, Cherrapunji, Mewlong and Langrin (Meghalaya); Makum, Jaipur and Nazira in upper Assam, Namchik – Namphuk (Arunachal Pradesh) and Kalakot (Jammu and Kashmir).
- Brown coal or lignite occurs in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.
Petroleum:
India is the world’s 3rd largest oil consumer of Hydrocarbons.
- We uitlise 6.7MMT of Diesel, 2.3MMT of Petrol, 2.2MMT of LPG.
- Demand for domestic LPG is climbing due to Ujjwala Yojana.
Petroleum reserves in India
Crude petroleum generally occurs in sedimentary rocks of the tertiary period (also known as sedimentary basins). In recent years many new oil deposits have been found in extreme Western and eastern parts of the country.
- Assam: ONGC was set up in 1956, till then Digboi in Assam was the only oil-producing region. Naharkatiya and Moran are other important oil-producing areas.
- Gujarat: Ankaleshwar, Kalol, Mehsana, Nawagam, Kosamba and Lunej.
- Mumbai High(off-shore): 160 km off Mumbai, discovered in 1973 and production commenced in 1976.
ONGC has been found in exploratory wells in the Krishna-Godavari and Kaveri basins on the east coast.
Refineries:
Crude oil in itself is a mixture of 100s of different compounds of different densities, which limits its utility. Refineries remove impurities from the Petroleum Crude and derive several types of products out of it.
18 refineries in India: two types of refineries in India:
- Field-based. For example, Digboi
- Market-based. For example, Barauni
Natural Gas:
Naturally occurring Methane (CH4) is known as Natural Gas. It is an environment-friendly clean fossil fuel, that has the potential to play a significant role in providing solutions to environmental challenges as well as ever-growing energy needs in a sustainable manner.
GAIL was set up in 1984 as PSU to transport and market natural gas. It is obtained along with oil in all the oil fields but exclusive reserves have been located along the eastern coast (TAMIL NADU, Odisha, AP), Tripura, Rajasthan and off-shore wells in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Non-Conventional Energy Sources:
The souces of energy that we learned about above which come from fossil fuel are generally termed as Conventional sources of energy. These are products of dead and decaying matter that got fossilised under high temperatures and pressure for millions of years.
Renewable sources of energy are generally known as Non-conventional sources of energy. These are the sources that can be replenished easily.
These include the following sources of energy:
Solar Energy:
Solar energy can be tapped through two processes effectively – one is through photovoltaics and the other through solar thermal technology.
- Photovoltaic Cells are electronic devices that are capable of converting the energy of the Photons into electricity.
- Solar thermal technology directly uses solar heat to either produce electricity (by boiling water and spinning a turbine) or for processes like cooking.
The solar energy has some relative advantages over all other non-renewable energy sources:
- It is cost-competitive, environment friendly and easy to construct.
The western part of India has greater potential for the development of solar energy in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Wind Energy:
Wind energy is absolutely pollution-free and inexhaustible. It can be easily harnessed using wind Turbines. We generally place such wind turbines at locations of permanent wind systems.
Wind energy Potential in India is generally greater in the western part of India.
- In Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, favourable conditions for wind energy exist.
- The wind power plant at Lamba in Gujarat in Kachchh is the largest in Asia. Another, wind power plant is located at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
Tidal Energy:
It uses energy from the rise and fall of water which creates a gravitational potential, which can be easily converted to electric energy through the action of turbines.
Geothermal Energy:
Hot springs and geysers have been used since the medieval period for deriving energy for purposes like cooking. Currently, steam generated from such areas is generally used to drive turbines if the source of the spring is hot enough and large enough.
A geothermal energy plant has been commissioned at Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh.
Bio Energy:
Bio Energy is the energy derived from the fuel produced by the organic matter. It is apotential source of energy conversion. Such fuel is generally produced using dead and decaying organic matter, and the fuel thus produced is known as Biofuel.
It can be converted into electrical energy, heat energy or gas for cooking. It will also process the waste and garbage and produce energy. One such project converting municipal waste into energy is Okhla in Delhi.
We shall read about these non-conventional sources of energy in greater detail in our Environment book.
Related FAQs of Mineral and Energy Resources
In geography, resources are classified into Potential, Developed (Actual), Stock, and Reserves. Potential resources are known to exist but are not yet used, while developed resources are surveyed and ready for use. Stocks need new technology to be utilized, and reserves are usable with existing technology but might be economically unviable right now.
India’s major iron ore reserves are found in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Goa. The Odisha-Jharkhand belt is the most significant, with mines like Kiriburu, Bonai, and Gurumahisani being well-known. Bellary in Karnataka and Bailadila in Chhattisgarh are also major hubs.
Ferrous minerals contain iron, like iron ore, manganese, and chromite, and are used in steel-making and heavy industries. Non-ferrous minerals do not contain iron and include bauxite (aluminum), copper, and lead, which are essential for electrical and electronic applications.
India’s major conventional energy resources include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The non-conventional (renewable) energy sources are solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and bioenergy. India is investing heavily in solar and wind power, especially in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.
Coal is classified into peat, lignite, bituminous, and anthracite, based on carbon content. India’s coal mostly comes from the Gondwana basins, with Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh being top producers. The Damodar Valley (e.g., Jharia, Raniganj) is especially rich in high-grade bituminous coal.
