Minerals and Power resources occupy a very important place in our life as machines, ships, ornaments, building, coins and many other things which are associated with the modern civilized life are made of minerals with the help of power. In other words, power resources help turn minerals into finished goods. But no nation has within its boders, all the minerals and power resources. Unlike agricultural crops, minerals and most of the power resources are fixed in quantity. They are exhaustible and they cannot be replaced, renewed or replenished, hence the need for their conservation.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that India possesses some of the basic mineral and power resources on which industrial growth of our country depends. We have sufficient mineral and power resources to become an industrially self-reliant country. India has large Iron ore deposits. It is very rich in Manganese ore. Bauxite is found in large quantities. Mica is found in abundance here.
India has large deposits of Coal which is the backbone of our industries. Of late, sufficient deposits of oil have been discovered. This is a very important industrial fuel which is of great value both in war and peace. India as great potential of water-power resources which are being developed to compensate for the relative shortage of cooking coal and other exhaustible power resources. Though India is rich in its mineral resources, they are not large enough to meet the growing demand in view of India’s size and population. India is unfortunately poor in non-ferrous metals like copper, lead, zinc, gold etc. It is also still poor in power resources. It is, therefore essential that mineral and power resources should be judiciously and carefully utilised and their wasteful consumption should be avoided.
Uneven distribution
Distribution of mineral and power resources in India is very uneven. The Great North Plains have practically no mineral as yet. North-east portion of Peninsular India which lies in Jharkhand and Orissa boasts of as one of the largest concentrations of mineral and power deposits in the world. It is known for its richest Iron ore and Coal. The region is named as Chhotanagpur Plateau Region. Two essential ingredients of steel viz., Iron ore and Coal are found in close proximity and this factor has accelerated the growth of steel industry in the region. The region also possesses Manganese, Mica, Copper, Bauxite and Nuclear minerals such as Uranium and Thorium. The rest of the mineral and power deposits are found scattered all over the peninsular block, including parts of Assam in the east and Rajasthan in the west.
Conservation of minerals
Minerals are exhaustible resources. Once used, they become exhausted forever hence they need conservation. Mineral resources can be conserved by adopting the following methods:
- By stopping wastage in the mining of minerals.
- While extracting metal from ores, utmost care should be paid so that wastage is the minimum.
- Use of minerals should be substituted by plastic, wood and other synthetics.
- Scrap should be recycled.
