INTRODUCTION
- Minerals are the base of modern society. They are naturally occuring substances which have certain physical properties and specific chemical compositions. They are nonrenewable natural resources.
- ‘Minerals’ are natural inroganic substance in the earth’s crust but only locally enriched concentrations are of economic importance. Such minerals deposits are exploited and processed for the production of valuable metals like Iron, Copper Lead, Zinc and Aluminium etc. Some minerals are directly used with or without refining in the industrial like limestone, fertilizers, rock phosphate, coal, Petroleum Gypsum etc.
OCCURENCE OF MINERALS
- Minerals are usually extracted from ores, which are rocks having a high concentration of a particular mineral. Metals are often extracted from their ores by heating beyond the melting point. This process is known as metling.
- Generally, useful minerals occur in thin layers, or veins, in rocks buried under the earth’s surface. The process of taking them out is called mining. Ores that lie near the surface are simply dug out. This is called quarrying.
- Ores that lie at shallow depths are taken out by removing the surface layers. This is known as open cast mining. Deep bores, called shafts, have to be made to reach mineral deposits that lie at great depths. This is called shaft mining. Petroleum and natural gas occur far below the earth’s surface. Deep wells are bored to take them out. This is called drilling.
- Heavy mineral particles weatherd from rocks sometimes settle down on river beds and beaches. Such mineral deposits are called placer deposits. Minerals found in placer deposits include gold, copper, tin and diamonds.
TYPES OF MINERALS
Minerals are classified mainly as metallic and nonmetallic minerals.
(i) Metallic Minerals :
- Metallic minerals contain metals. Metals are hard substances that conduct heat and electricity. They have a characterstic lustre, or shine. They are malleable and ductile. Metallic minerals include iron ore, manganese ore, bauxite ore etc.
- Metallic minerals may be ferrous or nonferrous. Ferrous minerals like iron ore, manganese and chromite contain iron. A nonferrous mineral does not contain iron but may contain some other metal such as gold, silver, copper or lead.
(ii) Nonmetallic Minerals :
- The minerals that do not contain metals are called nonmetallic minerals.
- Limestone, mica and gypsum are examples of such minerals. Nonmetallic minerals also include mineral fuels like coal and petroleum.
IRON-ORE
- Iron-ore is of the most widely distributed elements of the earth’s crust, rarely occurs in a free state.
- There are four varieties of Iron ore : magnetite (contains 72 percent of iron ore), haematite (contains 60-70 percent of iron ore), limonite (contains 50-60 percent of iron ore) and siderite (contains 40-50 percent of iron ore).
- Producing Areas - Ukraine, Russia, France, Sweden, Australia, China, India, U.S.A., Canada, Great Britain, Malaysia, Spain, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Algeria, Tunesia, Morrocco, Transval, Liberia, Guien Coast, Sierra-Leon.
MICA
- A non-metallic mineral, found in nature is several varieties.
- Mica is one of the indispensable minerals used in electrical and electronics industry.
- Mica mineral occurs in igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks formed under different Geological conditions.
- Producing Areas - India, U.S.A., Ural, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Norway, Canada, Malagasi.
MAGANESE-ORE
- Manganese is a kind of ferroalloy used to manufacture special quality steel. Smelting of Iron also require manganese for removing the exides during the smelting of Iron.
- Manganese is used for special quality steel making, makes steel anticorrosive hard and clean, increases toughness strength and durability, to resist oxidation in blast furnaces, used to produce alloys with Copper, Bronze and Nickel, etc.
- Producing Areas, South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Garbon, India.
COPPER
- Copper is a non-ferrous, soft brown metal, discovered in earliest stage of civilizatoin. Since Copper and Bronze age use of Copper remained unabated.
- Due to low resistance, high conductivity, ductility and non-corrosive nature it is now indispensible in electrical industry.
- It is found in metamorphic and igneous rocks.
- It is allowed with Tin, with Zinc, with Nickel with Gold and Silver.
- Production Areas - Chile (the largest Copper-ore producing country), Peru, U.S.A., South Africa, Zambia, Zaire, Angola, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Russia, Spain, Yugoslavia, Germany, China, Indonesia, India, Australia.
BAUXITE
- Bauxite the principal ore of Aluminium is an impure raw material.
- At least six tons of bauxite is required to produce 1 ton of Aluminium.
- Producing Areas - Australia, Jamaica, Guyana, Venezuela, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Haiti, Russia, Kazakistan, Hungary, France, China, India.
CHROMIUM
- It is an important Ferro-alloy metal, occurs in the form of Ironchromate or Chrome-Iron ore.
- It is hard, silvery and metallic in lustre. It is used in stainless steel, plating or nickel.
- Producing Areas - Chromium deposits are widely scattered in different parts of the world of which two countries i.e., South Africa and C.I.S. are most important.
TUNGSTEN
- Wolfram or Wolframite is the chief source of tungsten, mainly occurs in veins is association with tin Cassiterites. Scheelite and hubnevite are the other chief sources of tungsten.
- Tungsten is very tough and is used in making steel alloys. Filament of electric bulbs are made of tungsten.
- Producing Areas : Principal deposits of tungsten are found in China, CIS, and Korean Republic are of outstanding importance.
- U.S.A., Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Zaire, Australia, Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden are other important producers.
NICKLE
- Nickle is a hard metal, makes up majority of earth’s inner core. It is a silvery metal, does not nather rust, also useful for plating purposes.
- Nickle is used to make stainless steel, manufacturing of food containers, radio transformer, telegraph relay parts, flame tubes, batteries etc.
- Producing Areas : About 20 countries mine, nickle in different corners of the world, but only five countries Russia, Canada, New Calendonia, Indonesia and Australia supply about nine-tenths of the world nickel output.
GOLD
- Gold is a valuable, beautiful and durable metal, found in veins or reefs of quartz traversing lgneous, sedimentary or metamorphic rocks.
- Gold is used as an ornament as well as coins.
- Producing Areas : South Africa, C.I.S., U.S.A., Canada, Colombia, Peru, Equador, Bolivia, Brazil, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, India.
SILVER
- Silver is white, valuable. It is used in ornaments and coins.
- The chief ore minerals of silver are argentine, stephanite and proustite.
- Producing Areas : Mexico, Canada, U.S.A., Australia, Bolivia, Chile, Spain, Germany, Japan, Myanmar, India, Sweden, Italy, Finland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Check, etc.
POWER RESOURCES
- The amount of power resources, or energy production and consumption is sometimes considered as an index of any country’s economic development.
- Sources of energy are categorised as conventional and non-conventional. Coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity (both thermal and hydel) are conventional, while solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, atomic energy and biogas are non-conventional sources of energy. Conventional sources of energy have been is use for quite sometime, while non-conventional sources are new.
CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF ENERGY
COAL
- Black Gold, the second largest fuel source, contributing nearly 27% of the Global energy production.
- Much of the present day high quality coals were deposited during Carboniferous geological era (250 million years ago).
(a) Types of Coal :
- Peat : Inferior grade coal, carbon content 30%-35% moisture 50% high amount of volatile matter.
- Lignite or Brown coal : Brown in colour, carbon content 35%-45%, moisture 40%. Volatile matter and impurity.
- Bituminous : Black in colour, carbon content 50%-80% low amount of moisture and volatile matter.
- Anthracite : Best quality coal, carbon content 90% or more, difficult to burn, having blue flames.
(b) Global distribution :
- China : It is believed to possess nearly 45% of all the global coal reserved.
- U.S.A. : The second largest country in bituminous coal reserve. Its reserve amounts to 13.32% of the world.
- C.I.S. : The C.I.S. is the third largest country after China and U.S.A. in coal reserves.
- India : The third largest coal producing country in the world.
- Australia : Secured fifth position in the world and top position in Southern-Hemisphere. The country possess over 10% of the global coal deposits.
- Germany : The largest coal producing country in Europe, secured sixth position in the world.
PETROLEUM
- Petroleum is the inflammable mixture of Hydrocarbons, comprising of gaseous, liquid and solid materials. It is a black gold.
- It is commonly believed that large scale tectonic movements and denudational activities resutled in accumulation, submergence and compaction of deposited semiments. Due to massive upheaval and sedimentation, huge amount of marine plant and animal life was buried under thick layers of sedimentations. The underlying heat and tremendous pressure enhanced decomposition and transformation of organic body to crude oil.
- The occurrence of crude oil is much more in sedimentary rocks of marine origin. The rocks having greater proportions of pore spaces and having simple structural formations contain more oils. It is, therefore, sand stone which contains more oil than mudstone, and shale. Igneous rocks seepage flows with in the cracks and fissures.
- Folded strata are the major sources of Petroleum, though it may also occur with in fault trap, slat plug and stratigraphic trap. The oil strata lies with in two impervious layers.
(a) Impotance and Use of Petroleum :
(i) Transport and Communication (ii) Industry and Electricity generation (iii) Lubrication of Machines (iv) Chemical and Petro-chemical Industry (Artificial fibres, Aftificial rubber, Nylon, Plastics, Chemical Fertilizer, Pesticides and insecticides, Perfumes, Dyes, paint, varnishes etc. (v) Other use (kerosene, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Asphalt and Vaseline).
(b) Global distribution of Petroleum :
Global distribution of crude oil is, naturally, uneven. Middle East (Asia) contains 60% of global reserves while countries of S.E. Asia and Latin America are practically devoid of crude oil.
Country/Continents Percentage of world total
1. North America 13
(a) Mexico 8
(b) U.S.A. 4
(c) Canada 1
2. South America 6
Venezuela 4
3. Europe 15
(a) Norway 2
(b) Great Britain 1
(c) Russia
4. Africa 8
(a) Libya 3
(b) Nigeria 2
(c) Algeria 1
5. Middle East Asia 50
(a) Saudi Arabia 24
(b) Kuwait 7.5
(c) Iraq 7.5
(d) Iran 5.8
(e) U.A.E. 5.2
6. For East Asia 5
(a) China 3
(b) Indonesia 1
RANK OF OIL PRODUCING COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
1. Saudi-Arabia 2. Russia 3. Mexico 4. Iran
5. China 6. Kuwait 7. Veneuzuela 8. Iraq
9. Great Britain
(c) OPEC :
- OPEC was fomed in 1960 at Bagdad convention, intitially it compreised five members (a) Saudi Arabia, (b) Iran, (c) Iraq, (d) Kuwait and (e) Venezeula. Later on eight coutnries Libya, Algeria, Qatar, U.A.E, Nigeria, Equador, Angola and Indonesia joined it. Indonesia as recently left the OPEC.
- The major objective of the OPEC was to safeguard the oil export interest of member of countries and find out the most suitable mechanism to combat the falling international crude oil price and demand of Petroleum.
NATURAL GAS
It is a special kind of volatile hydro-carbon, consists of Propane, Ethane, Butane, Methane and several other gases, usually found along with crude oil. Natural Gas producing regions are -
- America Region : U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Venezuela.
- European Region : Russian Federation, U.K., France, Romania.
- Meddle East Asia : Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar etc.
- Far East Region : Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India etc.
- African Region : Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria.
(a) Major use of Natural Gas :
- As a fuel in industries and domestic cooling purposes.
- Petro-chemical industry as a fuel and raw material.
- In chemical-artificial rubber, plastic, fertiliers, ink, carbon.
- Artificial lighting.
MINERALS INDIA
India is fortunate to have fairly rich and varied mineral resources. However, these are unevenly distributed. Broadly speaking, peninsular rocks contain most of the reserves of coal, metallic minerals, mica and many other non-metallic minerals. Semimentary rocks on the western and eastern flanks of the peninsula, in Gujarat and Assam have most of the petroleum deposits Rajasthan with the rocks on the systems of the peninsula, has reserves of many non-ferrous minerals. The vast alluvial plains of north India are almost devoid of economic minerals. These variations exist largely because of the differences in the geological structure, processes and time involved in the formation of minerals.
(a) Iron-ore :
- Magnetite is the finest iron ore with a very high content of iron up to 70 percent. Hematite ore is the most important industrial iron ore in terms of the quantity used, but has a slightly lower iron content than magentite (50-60 percent).
- India is one of the world’s leading producers of iron ore. The states of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh lead in iron ore production. Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra also produce iron ore.
(a) Alluminum :
Alwaye (Kerala), Korba (Chhattisgarh), Asansol (West Bengal), Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), Renukute (U. P.), and Heerakud (Orissa).
(b) Asbestos :
Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur.
(c) Bauxite :
Plateau bordering Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, coastral tracts of Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Western Ghats, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
(d) Copper :
Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal.
(e) Lead Ore :
Its chief is galena, a sulphid of lead Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, M.P., Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnaktaka, Tamil Nadu.
(f) Nickle :
Orissa (Cuttack district), Manipur (Morch, Mangan and Kongae Thana area), Jammu Kashmir (Ramsu, Gamita, and Jangalgali), M.P. (Jhabua), Tamil nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
(g) Diamond :
Madhya Pradesh (Panna, Chattarpur and Satna districts) Uttar Pradesh (Banda district).
(h) Gold :
Karnataka (Kolar and Hatti gold field), Andhra Pradesh (Ramgiri gold field). New field have been found at Karnataka state. The occurrence of gold in other States Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand.
(i) Gypsum :
It is a hydrated calcium sulphate, found in the bands and beds of sedimentary rocks. Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Meghalaya, Assam, Jharkhand, Maharashtra.
(j) Limestone :
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Assam, Jharkhand, Maharashtra.
(k) Manganese Ore
India is the third largest producing country of mangnese ore, found in rocks of Dharwar system Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Karnataka.
(l) Mica
India provides 80% of world requirement of black mica. Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradehs, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal are the other states.
(m) Salt
India is one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of salt. In Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Salt is produced by evaporating sea water. Salt is also obtained from Lake Sambhar in Rajasthan. Himachal Pradesh produces rock salt.
(n) Silver :
Karnataka (Kolar field), Bihar (Manbhum), Rajasthan (Zawar), Tamilnadu (Anantpur).
CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF ENERGY :
(a) Coal :
- The quality of coal as a fuel depends on carbon content, which also indicates the age of the coal. Anthracite, with about 90-95 percent carbon content and very low moisture content, is the best coal in terms of quality. Bituminous coal, with about 80-85 percent carbon content and fairly low moisture content, is the most commonly used variety. Lignite (brown coal), with about 70-75 percent carbon content and fairly high moisture content, is widely used in thermal power plants but not as a fuel. Peat, with about 50-60 percent carbon content and very high moisture content, is the first product in the process of coal formation. It is a poor quality fuel.
- The major resources of Gondwana, which are metallurgical coal, are located in Damodal valley (West Bengal-Jharkhand). Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro are important coalfields. The Godavari, Mahanadi, Son and Wardha valleys also contain coal deposits.
- Tertiary coal occur in the north eastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
(b) Petroleum :
Assam (Digboi, Badarpur, Naharkatiya, Kasimpur, Rudrapur, Shivsagar, Moran-Bapapung, Hausanpung and Hugirijang), Gujarat (Cambay basin, Ankleshwar, Kalol, Nawagam and Sanand), Maharashtra (Bombay High, Ratnagiri district), Cauvery, krishna and Godavari basin, other discovred oil fields are in Tripura, Punjab, Nagaland, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.
(c) Natural Gas :
Assam and Gujarat. The gas field at Cambay (Gujarat) is the only non-associated source of natural gas. Ankleshwar gas field and Bombay high new gas field. Marah and Naharkatiya gas field in Assam. Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Tamilnadu are the other states were the natural gas is found.
As the demand for power in increasing, attempts are being made to tap new, nonconventional sources of power. These sources of power are inexhaustible or renewable.
(a) Atomic minerals :
- Minerals that yield power-producing substances like uranium and thorium are known as atomic minerals.
- There are six nuclear power stations located in our country. There are located at Tarapur (Maharashtra), Kalpakkam, near Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Rawatbhata near Kota (Rajasthan), Narora (Uttar Pradesh), Kakrapara (Gujarat) and Kaiga (Karnataka).
(b) Solar Energy :
- Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity.
- Solar energy is becoming popular in different parts of the world and is used for cooking, pumping, heating of water, refrigerator and street lighting.
- Thare desert can become the biggest solar power house of India. The largest solar plant of India is located at Madhapur, near Bhuj (Gujarat).
(c) Wind Energy :
- Windmills designed to act as turbines are now being used to generate electricity.
- India has a wind power potential of 20000 MW. States favorable for wind energy generation are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Lakshadweep.
(d) Geothermal Energy :
- The heat stored in the earth’s interior is called geothermal energy. Steam and hot water from geothermal sources like geysers and hot springs can be used for heating buildings and generating electricity.
- Two experiment projects have been set up in India to harness geothermal energy. One is located in the Parvati valley near Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh and the other is located in the Puga valley, Ladakh.
(e) Tidal Energy :
- Oceanic tides can be used to generate electricity.
- In India, the Gulf of Kuchchh, provides ideal conditions for utilising tidal enegy. 900 MW tidal energy power plant is set up here by the National Hydropower Corporation.
