Mineral resources are one of the main components of the economic development of the state. In the presence of a variety of minerals, the country will not be dependent on external partners. The emphasis will be on the development of areas that are rich in territory. How is it done in India.
Features of the tectonic structure
According to its tectonic structure, India is divided into three parts. The main territories of the country are on the surface of the Hindustan plate. This part of the state is the most stable. In the north-east of modern India begins the highest mountain range of the planet - the Himalayas, which was formed as a result of the collision of two plates - the Hindustan and Eurasian, with their subsequent unification into one continent. The same collision contributed to the formation of the trough of the earth's crust, which was later filled with alluvium and gave rise to the third part - the Indo-Gangetic plain. The relief features of India and minerals are tightly interconnected. The modern embodiment of the oldest plate is the Deccan Plateau, which occupies almost the entire central and southern part of the country. It is rich in deposits of various ore minerals, diamonds and other precious stones, as well as deposits containing coal and hydrocarbons.
Stock Summary
You can highlight some feature of the state of India. Minerals containing ore: iron, copper, manganese, tungsten, as well as bauxite, chromite and gold, are located in the east and northeast of the country. In places of contact of the Deccan plateau with mountain ranges. Here, as well as on the more eastern plateau of the Chhota Nagpur, the largest coal basins are concentrated. The raw materials of these deposits are not of high quality - they are mainly energy coals and they are used as much as possible precisely in the energy sector. South India is rich in deposits of bauxite, gold, chromite. Iron ore deposits are located in the central part of the country. In contrast to coal mining, which is mainly aimed at the domestic market, mining of ore minerals is oriented towards export. The coastal strip of the Indian coast has reserves of monazite sand, which contains thorium and uranium ores. And the question of what kind of minerals India is rich in can be answered by everyone. And the presence of large deposits of precious metals - gold and silver - allowed India, literally, to become the main source of jewelry in the world.
Ore minerals
The western lowlands of the country and the mountainous northern lands of the state of India are practically deprived of ore mineral resources. Relief and minerals in this country are interconnected. Therefore, almost all ore deposits are associated with the Deccan Plateau. Its northeast is rich in huge deposits of various resources - iron, chromium, and manganese are mined here. Iron ore reserves are estimated at twelve billion tons. And ore is mined on such a scale that local metallurgy does not have time to process it.
Therefore, most of the ore mined is exported. The high content of useful substance is famous for Indian
manganese ores and chromites. And the country's
polymetallic ores are rich in zinc, lead and copper. Separately, it is necessary to highlight special fossils - monazite sands. They are found on many world coasts, but India has the largest cluster of them. Minerals of this type have a large component of radioactive ores - thorium and uranium. The country took advantage of the presence of this component on its territory, which allowed it to become a nuclear power. In addition to radioactive substances, monazite sands contain a sufficient amount of titanium and zirconium.
Non-metallic minerals
The main mineral of this type is coal, which accounts for ninety-seven percent of Indian coal reserves. Most deposits are located in the east and northeast of the Deccan plateau and the Chhota Nagpur plateau. Explored coal reserves are the seventh in the world. But the extraction of this mineral accounts for seven percent of the global value - the largest indicator among the rest of the countries.
Coal is used mainly in the form of fuel for thermal power plants. Only a small amount is involved in metallurgy.
Brown coal production in the country is negligible. This fossil is used only in the form of fuel. The northeastern lands are rich in oil reserves. Until the middle of the last century, these were the only oil deposits that India knew. Minerals of this type from that period began to be explored throughout the country and large deposits were found in the west of the country and on the shelves of the Arabian Sea. The country produces more than forty million tons of oil annually, but this is not enough for the booming Indian industry, so a significant part of the oil the country has to import.
Jewelry leader
What else is India famous for? Minerals that are significant in the life of the country were listed above. Almost all - only precious metals and precious stones were not mentioned.
For several millennia, all the world's diamonds have been mined in India near Golconda, in the eastern part of the Deccan plateau. By the eighteenth century, it turned out that these deposits are practically empty. At the same time, large deposits were discovered in Africa, Canada, Siberia, and they began to forget about Indian diamonds. Relatively small diamond mining by world standards and the presence of platinum and gold components in the ore deposits of the east and north-east of the country have made India the world leader in jewelry.