Mineral and Energy Resources

India’s mineral belts and the main metallic minerals, coal, petroleum and natural gas, nuclear power, and non-conventional energy, with ways to conserve resources.

Key ideas

Minerals are unevenly spread, exhaustible, and good-quality ones are scarcer than poor ones.
Most metallic minerals lie in the old crystalline rocks of the peninsular plateau, mostly east of a line from Mangaluru to Kanpur.
The main belts are the north-eastern plateau, the south-western plateau, the north-western region and the Himalayan belt.
Ferrous minerals (iron ore, manganese, chromite) contain iron; non-ferrous ones (copper, bauxite) do not; mica and limestone are non-metallic.
Most coal is Gondwana coal in the Damodar, Sone, Mahanadi and Godavari valleys; petroleum is found in Assam, Gujarat and offshore Mumbai High.
Refineries are field-based (near oilfields, like Digboi) or market-based (near consumers, like Barauni).
Non-conventional energy (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, bio-energy) is renewable and cleaner; recycling and substitutes help conserve minerals.

Remember

Coal	over 97% of reserves in the Damodar, Sone, Mahanadi and Godavari valleys; about 80% bituminous non-coking; Jharia the largest field
Share of a total	per cent × total ÷ 100
Mumbai High	about 160 km offshore; found in 1973; trip time = distance ÷ speed
Nuclear plants	Tarapur, Rawatbhata, Kalpakkam, Narora, Kaiga, Kakrapar
Mineral places	iron ore: Noamundi, Bailadila, Kudremukh; bauxite: Kalahandi; mica: Nellore; lignite: Neyveli
Other energy	geothermal plant at Manikaran; monazite (thorium) in Kerala

Watch out

Calling bauxite or copper a ferrous mineral.
Mixing up field-based (Digboi) and market-based (Barauni) refineries.
Counting coal or natural gas as non-conventional energy.

Worked example

Suppose a state’s power capacity of 9,000 MW is 65% coal-based, 20% hydel and the rest wind and solar. (a) How many MW come from each? (b) Which of these are non-conventional? (c) Give one advantage of non-conventional energy.

Working: 65%, 20% and 15% of 9,000

Answer: (a) coal 5,850, hydel 1,800, wind and solar 1,350 MW (b) wind and solar (c) renewable and pollution free (or more evenly spread)