Geography #4: Minerals and Energy

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What is the difference between an open pit mine, a quarry and an underground mine with shafts?
Open pit mining/Open Cast Mining
1. Done for those minerals which lie close to the surface of the earth
2. Used where commercially useful minerals are found near the surface.
3. Extracted using Earth moving machinery

Quarry
1. Used for mining minerals at shallow depths
2. Used for extracting building materials like stone and limestone.
3. Extracted using Earth moving machinery

Underground mining with shaft

1. Minerals which lie at great depths below the surface of the earth
2. Used where the minerals occurs as veins in hard rock deep below the surface of the earth
3. Extracted using elevators which can carry people and mineral extracting equipment deep into areas where minerals are available

Introduction
● The earth’s crust is made up of minerals which are extracted and refined to form metals
● In toothpaste:
○ 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
○ The whiteness cones from titanium oxide, which comes from minerals called rutile, ilmenite and anatase
○ The sparkle in some toothpastes comes from mica
○ The plastics they are composed of extracts from petroleum
● Our general mineral intake is 0.3% of our total consumption, but without them, the remaining nutrients would be useless and we
would not be able to utilise them
● A mineral is defined as a homogenous, naturally occurring substance with a definable internal structure
● Rocks are combinations of minerals in different proportions
● Limestone is an example of a rack which is purely composed of one mineral, however most rocks consist of various different
minerals
● Over 2000 minerals have been identified but only a few are abundantly found
● The structure and appearance of minerals depends on the physical and chemical conditions of their formation

Occurrence of Minerals
● Minerals are typically found in ores: an accumulation of any mineral mixed with other elements
● For the ore’s extraction to be economically efficient, the mineral has to be of sufficient concentration
● The five primary types of formation in which minerals occur are:
1. Veins & lodes (igneous and metamorphic): these occur in cracks, faults and joints of the earth. They typically occur when
molten and gaseous minerals forced upward through cavities towards the earth’s surface and subsequently cool.
■ Veins are smaller, and lodes are larger
■ Tin, copper, zinc, lead
2. Beds or layers (sedimentary): These are formed as a result of deposition, accumulation and concentration in horizontal layers
■ This is the process through which coal and iron ore are formed (great heat and pressure)
■ There are prominent salts which are formed as a result of evaporation: gypsum (calcium carbonate), potash salt and
sodium salt
3. Weathering (bauxite): Surface rocks are decomposed and through weathering the soluble components are removed. This
leaves a residual mass of weathered material, which contains ores.
 4. Placer deposits (gold, silver, platinum, tin): They occur at the alluvial deposit-rich base of valleys. Consequently, they contain
minerals which are not corroded by water
5. Dissolved in ocean water (Common salt, magnesium, bromine): Ocean waters contains a variety of diffused minerals. Ocean
beds are very rich in magnesium nodules
● Rat Hole Mining: in the districts of Jowai and Cherapunjee in Meghalaya, there are large deposits of iron, limestone and
coal. Coal mining is done by a family member travelling through a long, narrow tunnel. This is known as a rat hole.
○ The National Green Tribunal has declared rat hole mining illegal (but ten labourers were rescued just last week)

Distribution of Minerals
Ferrous Minerals
● These account for 3/4th of the total value of production of metallic minerals
● India exports a fair amount of ferrous minerals

Iron:
○ The backbone of industrial development
1. Magnetite: the highest quality of iron ore, up to 70%. Used in electrical components
2. Hematite: 50-60% of iron, but is the most important mineral in terms of the quantity that is used
○ 97% of India’s iron production is derived from Jharakhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka

The Four Iron Belts:

Name of Belt Ore State District Name of Mine Related Ports

Mayurbhanj
Odisha-Jharkhand Hematite Odisha Badampahar Paradeep port
Kendujhar

Jharkhand Singbhum Gua & Noamudi

Vishakhapatnam Port
Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur Hematite Chhattisgarh Bastar Bailadila Mt. Range on the cost of Andhra
Pradesh

Bellary-Chitradurga-
Both Karnataka Western Ghats Kudermukh mines Mangaluru port
Chikmaglur-Tumkur

Maharashtra-Goa Goa Goa

Maharashtra Ratnagiri Marmagao port

Characteristics of Each Belt:

1. Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur
■ It lies in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
■ Very high grade hematite ores are found in the famous Bailadila ranges of hills in the Bastar district.
■ The range of hills comprises of 14 deposits of super high grade hematite iron ore.
■ The iron- ore extracted from these mines have the best physical properties needed for steel making.
■ Iron ore from these mines is exported to Japan and South Korea via the Vishakhapatnam port
2. Odisha-Jharkhand
■ In Odisha high grade hematite ore is found.
■ It is found in Badampahar mines in the Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar districts.
■ In the adjoining Singbhum district ofJharkhand hematite iron ore is mined in Gua and Noamundi.
3. Goa-Maharashtra
■ In the state of Goa and Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra
■ Iron ores are not of very high quality, but efficiently exploited and exported through Marmagao port.
4. Bellary-Chitradurga-Chikmaglur-Tumkur (longest name, most exports)
■ 100% export rate
■ One of the largest reserves in the world
■ The ore is transported as slurry through a pipeline to a port near Mangaluru

Manganese
● Manganese is mainly used in the manufacturing of steel and ferro-manganese alloy.
● Nearly 10 kg of manganese is required to manufacture one tonne of steel.
● It is also used in manufacturing bleaching powder, insecticides and paints.

Non-Ferrous
Copper
● India is critically deficient in the reserve and production of copper.
State Mine

Madhya Pradesh Balaghat

Rajasthan Khetri

Jharkhand Singhbum

Bauxite
● The source of aluminium ore
● Bauxite is a clay-like substance, from which alumina is extracted, and later aluminium
● They are formed by deposition of rocks rich in alumina silicates
● Aluminium is an important metal because it combines the strength of metals such as iron, with extreme lightness and also with
good conductivity and great malleability
● KBOMA (like Obama, get it?)

Region Breakdown
Amarkantak Plateau A district in eastern Madhya Pradesh

Maikal hills A hill range that stretches over southern Madhya Pradesh

Bilaspur-Katni plateau Bilaspur: A district in central Chhattisgarh

Panchpatmali deposits in Koraput district in Odisha Odisha produced 65% of India’s bauxite

Non-Metallic Minerals
Mica
● Can be split into thousands of sheets
● Mica can be clear, black, green, red yellow or brown
● 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.
● ANJR (A)

State Region

Chhota Nagpur Plateau Northern edge

Jharkhand Koderma-Gaya-Hazaribagh belt (over the border of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand)

Rajasthan Ajmer

Andhra Pradesh Nellore

Limestone
● Found in rocks composed calcium carbonates or calcium and magnesium carbonates
● Limestone is the basic raw material for the cement industry and essential for smelting iron ore in the blast furnace
● First five: RMACK (Ryan Mack, creator of I Should Have Stayed at Home)
● Rajasthan 20%
● Andhra Pradesh 13%
● Madhya Pradesh 13%
● Chhattisgarh 11%
● Karnataka 9%
Energy
Coal
● The most abundant source of energy in India

Category #1: By Hardness & Moisture

1. Lignite: low grade, moist and low heating capacity
○ Neyveli in Tamil Nadu (coastal, near Pondicherry)
2. Bituminous: the most popular coal in commercial use
3. Anthracite : highest quality hard coal

Category #2: By Age

● Gondwana: 200+ mil years

State Region Mine

West Bengal & Jharkhand Damodar valley (on the border of West Bengal & Jharkhand) Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro

Godavari, Mahanadi, Son, Wadhra

● Tertiary Deposits: 55 mil years

○ in the northeastern states: Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. NAAM

Petroleum
● It provides fuel for heat and lighting, lubricants for machinery and raw materials for a number of manufacturing industries
● Petroleum refineries act as a “nodal industry” for synthetic textile, fertiliser and numerous chemical industries
● Most of the petroleum occurrences in India are associated with anticlines and fault traps in the rock formations of the tertiary age
● In regions of folding, anticlines or domes, it occurs where oil is trapped in the crest of the upfold
● The oil bearing layer is a porous limestone or sandstone through which oil may flow. The oil is prevented from rising or sinking by
intervening non-porous layers.

State Region

Off-shore Mumbai High

Gujarat Ankekeshwar

Assam Digboi, Naharkatiya, Moran-Hugrijan

Natural Gas
● Natural Gas is found with petroleum deposits and is released when crude oil is brought to the surface
● It can be used as a domestic and industrial fuel
● It is used as fuel in power sector to generate electricity, for heating purpose in industries, as raw material in chemical,
petrochemical and fertilizer industries, as transport fuel and as cooking fuel

State Name

Off-shore Mumbai High and neighbouring field on the west coast, supplemented by fields in the Cambay basin

Off-shore In the Krishna-Godavari basin

● The first 1,700 km long Hazira-Vijaipur Jagdishpur (HVJ) cross country gas pipeline, constructed by GAIL (India), linked Mumbai
High and Bassein gas fields with various fertilizer, power and industrial complexes in western and northern India
● Overall, India’s gas infrastructure has expanded over ten times from 1,700 km to 18,500 km of cross-country pipelines
● It is expected to soon reach over 34,000 km since the Gas Grid will be linking all gas sources and consuming markets across the
country including North Eastern states

Electricity
● The consumption of electricity (per capita) is considered a parameter for development index
● Electricity is generated mainly in two ways:
1. by running water which drives hydro turbines to generate hydro electricity;
2. and by burning other fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas to drive turbines to produce thermal power
● India has a number of multi-purpose projects like the Bhakra Nangal, Damodar Valley corporation, the Kopili Hydel Project etc.
producing hydroelectric power.

Non-Conventional Sources of Energy

● India is blessed with an abundance of sunlight, water, wind and biomass. It has the largest programmes for the development of
these renewable energy resources.

● Nuclear Energy
● It is obtained by altering the structure of atoms. When such an alteration is made, much energy is released in the form of heat and
this is used to generate electric power.
● Uranium and Thorium, which are available in Jharkhand and the Aravalli ranges of Rajasthan are used for generating atomic or
nuclear power
● The Monazite sands of Kerala is also rich in Thorium.

● Solar Energy
● Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity. Solar energy is fast becoming popular in rural and remote areas
● Some big solar power plants are being established in different parts of India which will minimise the dependence of rural
households on firewood and dung cakes

● Wind Power
● The largest wind farm cluster is located in Tamil Nadu from Nagarcoil to Madurai.
● Apart from these, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and Lakshadweep have important wind farms.
● Nagarcoil (aforementioned) and Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) are well known for effective use of wind energy in the country.

● Biogas
● Shrubs, farm waste, animal and human waste are used to produce biogas for domestic consumption in rural areas
● Decomposition of organic matter yields gas, which has higher thermal efficiency in comparison to kerosene, dung cake and
charcoal
● Biogas plants are set up at municipal, cooperative and individual levels. The plants using cattle dung are known as ‘Gobar gas
plants’ in rural India
● Biogas is by far the most efficient use of cattle dung. It improves the quality of manure and also prevents the loss of trees and
manure due to burning of fuel wood and cow dung cakes

● Tidal Energy
● Oceanic tides can be used to generate electricity.
1. Floodgate dams are built across inlets.
2. During high tide water flows into the inlet and gets trapped when the gate is closed.
3. 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.
● 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

Geo Thermal Energy

● Geo thermal energy refers to the heat and electricity produced by using the heat from the interior of the Earth.
● Geothermal energy exists because the Earth grows progressively hotter with increasing depth
● Where the geothermal gradient is high, high temperatures are found at shallow depths
● Groundwater in such areas absorbs heat from the rocks and becomes hot. It is so hot that when it rises to the earth’s surface, it
turns into steam. This steam is used to drive turbines and generate electricity.
● Two experimental projects have been set up in India to harness geothermal energy. One is located in the Parvati valley near
Manikarn in Himachal Pradesh and the other is located in the Puga Valley, Ladakh.