CBSE Class 10 Social Science Minerals And Energy Resources Notes Set 03

These CBSE Class 10 Geography notes for Chapter 5 Minerals and Energy Resources cover how minerals form and are classified, the distribution and production of ferrous and non-ferrous minerals and non-metallic minerals, mining hazards and mineral conservation, conventional energy sources (coal, petroleum, natural gas, electricity) and non-conventional sources (nuclear, solar, wind, biogas, tidal, geothermal), and energy conservation, with a glossary at the end.

How Minerals Are Formed

Minerals form in several ways: in igneous and metamorphic rocks, smaller mineral occurrences in cracks and crevices are called veins, and larger ones are called lodes, where metallic minerals such as tin, copper, zinc and lead are found. In sedimentary rocks, minerals are deposited in horizontal layers through accumulation and concentration of material; prolonged heat and pressure have concentrated coal and some iron ores this way, while gypsum, potash salt and sodium salt form through evaporation, particularly in arid areas. Some minerals form through the weathering and breakdown of surface rocks, which removes soluble components and leaves behind ore-rich residual material — this is how bauxite forms. Certain minerals accumulate as alluvial "placer deposits" in valley-floor or hillside sands, generally minerals unaffected by water, such as gold, silver, tin and platinum. Ocean waters also contain minerals, though most are too widely dispersed to be economically useful; magnesium, bromine and table salt are, however, mainly sourced from the ocean, and manganese nodules are abundant both on land and in the sea.

Classification of Minerals

Metallic minerals include: ferrous (containing iron) — iron ore, manganese, nickel, cobalt; non-ferrous — copper, lead, tin, bauxite; andprecious — gold, silver, platinum. Non-metallic minerals include mica, salt, potash, sulphur, granite, limestone, marble and sandstone. Energy minerals include coal, petroleum and natural gas.

Rat-Hole Mining

Most minerals in India are nationalised, requiring government authorisation to access, but much mineral-bearing land in the tribal regions of north-east India remains privately held. Meghalaya has large deposits of coal, iron ore, limestone and dolomite; in the Jowai and Cherrapunjee areas, families mine coal through narrow tunnels known as "rat-hole" mining. This practice has been declared unlawful by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), with directions to discontinue it. The NGT itself was set up on 18 October, under the NGT Act of 2010, as a specialised authority for resolving multi-disciplinary environmental disputes. Other mining methods include open-pit mining, quarrying, and underground mining with shafts.

Distribution of Minerals

India has a relatively abundant, though unevenly distributed, range of mineral resources. Most coal, metallic minerals, mica and other non-metallic minerals are found in the peninsular rocks. Most of India's petroleum is found in sedimentary rocks in Gujarat and Assam, on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula respectively. Rajasthan is rich in non-ferrous minerals. The extensive alluvial plains of North India are, by contrast, largely devoid of useful minerals — a difference stemming mainly from different geological structures, processes and periods of formation.

Ferrous Minerals

Ferrous minerals account for about three-fourths of the total value of India's metallic mineral production, forming the base for the metallurgical industry; India meets its domestic needs and exports substantial amounts.

Iron ore is the foundational resource for industrial growth, and India has plentiful, high-purity reserves. Magnetite, the purest form, can contain up to 70% iron and has excellent magnetic properties valuable in the electrical industry; hematite, the most widely used industrial iron ore, contains somewhat less iron (50-60%). In 2018-19, about 97% of India's iron ore came from Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Jharkhand, with the remaining 3% from other states.

Major production areas: the Badampahar mines (Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar districts, Odisha, high-grade hematite), and nearby Gua and Noamundi in Singhbhum, Jharkhand; the Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur belt (Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra), including the Bailadila hills of Bastar district, home to 14 sources of very high-grade hematite, exported via Vishakhapatnam port to Japan and South Korea; the Ballari-Chitradurga-Chikkamagaluru-Tumakuru belt in Karnataka, including the export-focused Kudremukh mines in the Western Ghats, believed to hold one of the world's largest reserves, with ore piped as slurry to a port near Mangaluru; and the Maharashtra-Goa belt (Goa and Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district), where ores of somewhat lower quality are still effectively mined and exported through Marmagao port.

Manganese is used chiefly to make steel and ferro-manganese alloys — over 10 kg of manganese is needed to produce one tonne of steel — and also in insecticides, paints and bleaching powder. In 2018-19, Madhya Pradesh produced about 33% of India's manganese, Maharashtra 27%, Odisha 16%, Karnataka 12%, Andhra Pradesh 10%, and other states 2%.

Non-Ferrous Minerals

India's reserves and production of non-ferrous minerals (which do not contain iron, including gold, bauxite, lead and zinc) are relatively limited, though these minerals are vital to metallurgical, engineering and electrical industries.

Copper is malleable, ductile and an excellent conductor, used mainly in electrical wiring, electronics and chemicals. Top producers: the Balaghat mines (Madhya Pradesh), the Khetri mines (Rajasthan), and the Singhbhum district (Jharkhand).

Bauxite, a clay-like material, is the source of aluminium, forming through the breakdown of aluminium-silicate-rich rocks. Aluminium combines metal-like strength with light weight, good conductivity and excellent malleability. Most of India's bauxite deposits lie in the Amarkantak plateau, the Maikal hills, and the Bilaspur-Katni plateau area. In 2016-17, Odisha was India's top bauxite producer, with its most significant reserves at the Panchpatmali deposits, Koraput district. In 2018-19, Odisha produced about 65% of India's bauxite, Jharkhand 10%, Gujarat 9%, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra 6% each, Madhya Pradesh 3%, and others 1%.

Non-Metallic Minerals

Mica is made of thin plates or leaves that separate easily into sheets — about 1,000 stacked sheets can measure just a few millimetres. It can be clear, black, green, red, yellow or brown, and is valued in electrical and electronics industries for its dielectric strength, low power loss, insulating properties and resistance to high voltage. Found along the northern edge of the Chota Nagpur plateau, with the Koderma-Gaya-Hazaribagh belt (Jharkhand) as the main producing region; also produced around Ajmer (Rajasthan) and in the Nellore mica belt (Andhra Pradesh).

Limestone, found with rocks containing calcium carbonate or calcium-magnesium carbonate, occurs widely in sedimentary rock formations; it is the key raw material for the cement industry, and is also used in smelting iron ore in blast furnaces. In 2018-19, Rajasthan produced about 20% of India's limestone, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh 13% each, Chhattisgarh 11%, Karnataka 9%, Telangana 8%, Gujarat 7%, Tamil Nadu 6%, Maharashtra 4%, and others 8%.

Why is Chota Nagpur called the "storehouse of minerals"? because the region holds around 40% of India's iron ore, over 50% of its manganese reserves, and over 60% of its copper.

Hazards of Mining

Mining affects both the environment and miners' health: dust and toxic fumes make miners prone to lung disease; collapsing mine roofs, flooding and fires are constant risks in coal mines; mining contaminates local water sources; and dumped waste and slurry degrade land and soil and pollute streams and rivers. Preventing mining from becoming a "killing industry" requires stricter safety rules and better enforcement of environmental laws.

Conservation of Minerals

All economically viable mineral resources together make up barely 1% of the earth's crust. These resources took millions of years to form and concentrate, yet are being consumed at a much faster rate than nature can replenish them, making mineral resources finite and non-renewable. As extraction moves to deeper deposits of declining quality, costs rise further. Careful, sustainable use is essential, requiring continually improved technology to allow low-cost extraction of low-grade ores, alongside recycling metals and using scrap metal and other alternatives to conserve resources for the future.

Energy Resources

Every activity needs energy — for cooking, light and heat, movement, and powering industrial equipment. Energy can be produced from fuel minerals (coal, oil, natural gas, uranium) and from electricity, and comes from both conventional sources (firewood, cattle dung cake, coal, oil, natural gas, and hydel/thermal electricity) and non-conventional sources (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, biogas and atomic energy). Firewood and cattle dung cake remain the most common energy sources in rural India, together meeting, by some estimates, over 70% of rural household energy needs — though this is becoming harder to sustain as forest area declines.

Conventional Sources of Energy

Coal is India's most widely available fossil fuel, meeting a large share of the country's energy needs for homes, electricity generation and industry, with India heavily dependent on it for commercial energy. Coal forms through the compression of plant material over millions of years, giving rise to different grades depending on the degree and depth of compression: peat, formed by plant decay in marshes, has low carbon content, high moisture and poor heating value;lignite, a soft, low-grade brown coal with high moisture content, is mainly used for power generation, with its main reserves in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu; bituminous coal, formed under high temperature and deep burial, is the most widely used industrial coal, with high-grade "metallurgical coal" used for smelting iron in blast furnaces; and anthracite is the hardest, highest-grade coal. In India, coal occurs in two main rock ages: Gondwana coal (about 200 million years old) and Tertiary deposits (about 55 million years old). Most Gondwana metallurgical coal comes from the Damodar valley (West Bengal-Jharkhand), with important coalfields at Bokaro, Jharia and Raniganj, and further reserves in the Godavari, Mahanadi, Son and Wardha valleys; Tertiary coals are found in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

India's total installed thermal power capacity is about 239.07 GW, of which about 206.82 GW comes from coal, with the rest from lignite, diesel and gas. Since coal is heavy and loses weight (as ash) when burned, thermal power plants and heavy industries are typically located on or near coalfields.

Petroleum (mineral oil) is India's second-largest energy source after coal, providing fuel for heat and light, lubricants, and raw material for many manufacturing industries; petroleum refineries serve as a "nodal industry" for synthetic textiles, fertilisers and various chemical industries. Most Indian petroleum is associated with fault traps and anticlines in Tertiary rock layers, where oil becomes trapped in the crest of a fold (an anticline, dome or similar structure), held within a porous oil-bearing layer (often limestone or sandstone), bounded by non-porous layers that prevent it rising or sinking further; gas, being lighter, typically sits above the oil. India's main petroleum regions are Gujarat, Assam and Mumbai High (an offshore field). Ankleshwar is Gujarat's most important field; Assam, India's oldest oil-producing state, has its three most significant fields at Digboi, Naharkatiya and Moran-Hugrijan.

Natural gas is released alongside petroleum when crude oil is extracted, and is used for domestic and commercial fuel, electricity generation, industrial heating, as a raw material in chemicals, petrochemicals and fertilisers, for transport, and for cooking. With growing gas infrastructure and city gas distribution (CGD) networks, it is increasingly popular for home cooking and transport (as PNG). Most of India's gas reserves lie in Mumbai High and nearby fields along the west coast, with further discoveries in the Cambay basin and the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast. GAIL (India) built the first cross-country gas pipeline, the 1,700 km Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) pipeline, linking industrial complexes in western and northern India to the Mumbai High and Bassein gas sources, fuelling the growth of India's gas market. India's gas pipeline network has since grown more than tenfold, from 1,700 km to about 18,500 km, and is projected to reach over 34,000 km as a national "Gas Grid" connecting all gas suppliers and consumers, including the North-Eastern states.

Electricity use per person is often treated as an indicator of development. Electricity is generated mainly in two ways: burning fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas) to power turbines, producing thermal power; and using flowing water to drive hydro turbines, producing hydroelectricity, a renewable form of power generated by projects such as the Kopili Hydel Project, the Bhakra Nangal Project and the Damodar Valley Corporation. Thermal electricity, by contrast, relies on non-renewable fossil fuels.

Non-Conventional Sources of Energy

Rising energy consumption has made India more dependent on fossil fuels, raising concerns about energy security amid volatile oil and gas prices, alongside the environmental costs of fossil fuel use. This makes renewable (non-conventional) sources — sun, wind, tide, biomass and waste-to-energy — increasingly important. India is well endowed with wind, water, sunlight and biomass, and runs some of the world's most extensive renewable energy development programmes.

Nuclear (atomic) energy is produced by altering atomic structure, releasing large amounts of heat used to generate electricity. Uranium and thorium, used for nuclear power, are found in Jharkhand and the Aravalli range (Rajasthan); monazite sands in Kerala are also rich in thorium.

Solar energy: India, a tropical country, has huge solar potential; photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity, and is rapidly gaining popularity in rural and remote areas, with large solar power plants being built across the country, helping reduce reliance on dung cakes and firewood, aiding environmental conservation and freeing up manure for farming. The Bhadla Solar Park, in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, spans 56 sq. km with an installed capacity of 2,245 MW, making it the world's largest solar park.

Wind power: India has substantial wind energy potential, with the country's largest concentration of wind farms stretching from Nagercoil to Madurai in Tamil Nadu; other states with significant wind farms include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and Lakshadweep. Nagercoil and Jaisalmer are particularly well known for efficient wind energy use.

Biogas: making biogas from cattle manure gives farmers a double benefit, improved manure quality alongside additional energy, while also preventing the loss of trees and manure to the burning of dung cakes and firewood.

Tidal energy: electricity can be generated from ocean tides using floodgate dams across inlets; closing the gate at high tide traps incoming water, which, once the tide recedes, flows back out through a turbine, generating electricity. The Gangetic delta in the Sunderbans (West Bengal) and the Gulf of Khambhat and Gulf of Kutch (Gujarat), on the west coast, offer suitable conditions for tidal energy in India.

Geothermal energy: heat and electricity generated using heat from the earth's interior, which increases with depth; in areas with a strong geothermal gradient, groundwater absorbs heat and rises to the surface as steam, which can power turbines. India has many hot springs suitable for this purpose, with two pilot projects established: at Manikaran, in Himachal Pradesh's Parvati Valley, and in Ladakh's Puga Valley.

Conservation of Energy Resources

Energy is essential for economic growth, needed across homes, commerce, transport, agriculture and industry; energy use has risen continuously as India's development plans have expanded since Independence. A sustainable path for energy development rests on two pillars: improving energy efficiency, and expanding the use of renewable energy sources — India currently has one of the lowest energy efficiency rates in the world. As responsible citizens, individuals can help by using public transport instead of private vehicles, switching off electricity when not needed, adopting power-saving devices, and turning to non-conventional energy sources. As the chapter puts it: "energy saved is energy produced."

Glossary

Mineral: a substance found in the earth's crust, generally with a definite chemical composition.
Mineral Ore: the raw material extracted from the earth, mixed with soil and other impurities.
Mining: the economic activity of extracting minerals from the earth.
Fossil Fuels: fuels formed from the decomposition of organisms under the earth or seabed.
Non-Ferrous Minerals: minerals without iron content — e.g. zinc, lead.
Ferrous Minerals: minerals containing iron — e.g. iron and manganese ore.
Thermal Electricity: electricity produced using coal, petroleum or atomic minerals.
Hydro Electricity: electricity generated using water.
Conventional Resources: non-renewable energy sources — e.g. coal.
Non-Conventional Resources: renewable energy sources — e.g. solar energy.
Galena: an ore of lead.