Read this brief sector report about mining in India covering top mining locations, ores and gems mined as well as the role of the Indian government and companies.
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Author: Naganjana Devi
India’s Richest Lands are the Home to its Poorest People – Provides the perfect Picture of the position of Mining Sector in India.
Overview and History
Mining in India is one of the important economic sources contributing a huge income to the India economy. India exports the minerals found in abundance, after satisfying the domestic needs, thus form the important source for inflow of foreign money. The unavailable and scarcely available minerals are imported. Though mining activity was present from ancient days and can be dated way back to 6000 years, modernization was adapted after Independence. Mainly The Economic Reform of 1991 and The National Mining Policy of 1993 helped for the improvement of the Mining Sector.
India’s minerals are available in both metallic and non-metallic forms. The metallic minerals include ferrous and non-ferrous minerals while the non-metallic minerals comprise of mineral fuels, precious stones, among others.
Mining in India is dated back to Indus Valley Civilization and Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Archeologists have found many evidences during their excavations. Not only these, there are many citations of use of many minerals in Indian literatures (Sanskrit).
Before we could further explore deeper into other facts of Mining in India, we will peep into the Geographical section of the Mining.
Geographical Details
Blessed with a large range of mining products we can say India as the only country with maximum number of Natural resources, however the distribution and availability are uneven.
D.R. Khullar has divided the entire Indian Belt into 5 categories. They are:
North Eastern Peninsular Belt – Covers the Chota Nagpur Plateau and Orrisa Plateau, which spread over the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa. The belt is rich in coal, iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, copper, kyanite, chromite, beryl, apatite etc. Khullar’s Study revealed that the belt contains India’s 100 percent kyanite, 93 percent iron ore, 84 percent coal, 70 percent chromite, 70 percent mica, 50 percent fire clay, 45 percent asbestos, 45 percent china clay, 20 percent limestone and 10 percent manganese. Hence, he mentions it as the Mineral Heartland of India.
Central Belt – Spreads over the states of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra and is rich in manganese, bauxite, limestone, marble, coal, gems, mica, graphite etc. This is the second largest belt of minerals in the country. However, this belt requires further exploration for the extent of minerals available.
Southern Belt – Spreads over the states of Karnataka plateau and Tamil Nadu and is rich in ferrous minerals and bauxite. However, this is a low diversity belt.
South Western Belt – Spreads over the states of Karnataka and Goa and is rich in iron ore, garnet and clay.
North Western Belt – Spreads over the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat along the Aravali Range and is rich in non-ferrous minerals, uranium, mica, beryllium, aquamarine, petroleum, gypsum and emerald.
Apart from these belts, India also has a few oil wells primarily located in Assam and Gujarat and four major offshore oil fields – near Bombay, south of Pondicherry and in the Palk Strait. Oil wells were found in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There were a few positive findings in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh also. In addition, there are many marine and mountain regions to be explored.
Minerals and Mines
Figure 1: Coal Mines in India
Minerals
There are about 100 minerals available in India. To list a few, the main ones; Coal, Lignite, Natural Gas, Crude Petroleum, Bauxite, Copper, Gold, Iron Ore, Manganese Ore, Lead, Zinc, Gypsum, Diamond, Limestone, Phosphorite, etc.
Mines
As per Khullar’s view, there are over 3100 mines in India. Among them around 550 are fuel mines, 560 are metals and 1970 are non-metal mines. However, SN Padhi suggests that there are 600 coal mines, 35 oil projects and around 6000 metalliferous mines of different sizes. These mines are employing over 1 million people on an average every day.
To extract liquid and gaseous fuels drilling or pumping is adapted. For others open cast mining and underground mining are adapted.
Mine Locations and Minerals available
Figure 2: Mica Mines
- Petroleum: Bombay High Field, Gujarat and Assam
- Coal: Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh
- Iron Ore: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan etc
- Diamonds: Panna Mines in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa
- Gold & silver: Kolar fields in Karnataka, Dona block in Andhra Pradesh, Bansawar district Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
- Bauxite: Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Bihar
- Chromite: Byrapur, Karnataka, Boula, Kathpal, and Orissa
- Copper Ore: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Sikkim
- Granite: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh etc.
- Lead and Zinc Ore: Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh
- Manganese Ore: Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal and Karnataka
Companies Involved in Mining
- NCDC – National Coal Development Corporation of India
- NMDC – National Mineral Development Corporation of India
- BALCO – Bharat Aluminum Company
- PPCL – Pyrites, Phosphates and Chemicals Ltd
- HZL – Hindustan Zinc Ltd
- NLCL – Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited
- HCL – Hindustan Copper Ltd
- BGML – Bharat Gold Mines ltd
- SAIL – Steel Authority of India Limited (formerly it was Hindustan Steel Ltd)
Government and Mining
Mines survey and the regulation of their usage are carried out by the Indian Ministry of Mines, which controls the Geographical Survey of India and Indian Bureau of Mines. However natural gas and petroleum are exempted from the various activities. There are small sub-ministries like Minister of Coal and Mines, Iron Ore and Steel, etc for the main ministry.
Geological Survey of India (GSI): Conducts scientific surveys and research to locate mineral resources and creates the mining maps in India and also provides mines and mineral resources maps based on the research they perform.
Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM): Responsible for compilation of the mining exploration data and mineral maps for providing complete info on the new mines and fields in India. All the statistical information on mining industry in India – the mines, minerals, metals and the mineral based industries are available with the Indian Bureau of Mines.
Contribution to the World
Figure 3: Kohinoor Diamond
- World costliest and the beautiful Diamond till date, Kohinoor, was excavated 200 years back from the Golconda mines
- Leading producer of mica blocks and mica splitting, approximately 60% of the net mica production of the world
- Second largest chromite ad barites producer on the world in 2008
- Third in production of coal and lignite and fourth in coal reserves
- Fourth largest iron ore producer
- Fifth largest bauxite, crude steel and manganese ore producer
- Seventh in manganese ore
- Eighth position in aluminum
- Twelve Percent of the world’s known and economically available thorium
Issues
Like any other field, even the Mining Sector of India has few challenges to face. The foremost is the assessment of natural resources. There are many unexplored areas and the resources in these areas are assessed.
The other important issue is regarding the safety measures. In 1894, the then British Government appointed a committee to ensure a regulated safe mining in India. The committee passed the first Mining Act in 1901, which resulted in admirable decrease in mining related Accidents.
There are three causes for these issues; lack of Technical Knowledge, present regulatory environment and Logistics.
By present regulatory environment we mean that, it is more subjective than objective with respect to grants and administration of mining license in India. In spite of many efforts, there is no uniformity in licensing norms across states. They do not have an option of automatic conversion of reconnaissance permit for prospecting license to mining lease. Most of the State Governments have discretionary powers of terminating the mining lease on grounds of non-performance, environmental hazard or labor-related issues.
Logistics is a problem because there is no direct rail, port or road transportation links to the mining areas.
Scams
Since 2-3 months, Mining in India is in news almost every day, unfortunately for wrong reasons.
Scams which were under cover were uncovered two months back. The major ones are the Obulapuram of Andhra Pradesh and Niyamagiri hills of Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.
Obulapuram mining works were leased to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) owned by the Karnataka Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his brother Karunakar reddy. As per the lease agreement, Reddy brothers had to give 50% of the iron ore mined to Red Gold, in return for operational costs and an additional five percent.
OBC shifted permanent boundary pillar, 40 meters towards Karnataka boundary, thus increasing the lease area. OBC also laid two unauthorized road from the leased area. One from station no 1, leading into the reserve forest area (outside the lease) and the other from station no 10 leading to other leases located in Karnataka.
Centre has instructed the Orissa government to investigate the alleged illegal bauxite mining at Niyamagiri hills, owned by Vedanta. The verification reports are expected by December 8, 2009.
Courtesy to “Wikipedia” and “The Hindu”
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Comments:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
You have provided a lot of very useful information, but unfortunately, the piece needs a lot of editing. Content-wise it is informative. But try and have a more effective intro and conclusion. Plus there are lots of grammatical errors that need to be corrected. Lots of extra “the”s, wrong construction etc.
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Naganjana,
The content of your article is informative. Adding photos is a big asset to any content, so good job in taking the extra effort. I suggest that any time you add images or media to your articles you include a more interesting description about the image. Most people will read the photo byline first, especially in a feature article.
Well written the scenario of mining in India. But would have been better if the potential hazards, safety requirements and the most important need of the hour – nvironmental pollution were more focussed upon
we are looking for good Iron and Manganese ore mining area in Karnataka, India.
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