Mineral and Energy Resources - India - PDF

A concerted effort has to be made in order to use our mineral resources in a planned and sustainable manner. Improved technologies need to be constantly evolved to allow use of low grade ores at low costs. Recycling of metals, using scrap metals and other substitutes are steps in conserving our mine...

A concerted effort has to be made in order to use our mineral resources in a planned and sustainable manner. Improved technologies need to be constantly evolved to allow use of low grade ores at low costs. Recycling of metals, using scrap metals and other substitutes are steps in conserving our mineral resources for the future. Dig a little deeper: Make a list of items where substitutes are being used instead of minerals. Where are these substitutes obtained from? Energy Resources Fig. 5.9 (a): A view from inside of a coal mine Energy is required for all activities. It is needed to cook, to provide light and heat, to propel vehicles and to drive machinery in industries. Energy can be generated from fuel minerals like coal, petroleum, natural gas, uranium and from electricity. Energy resources can be classified as conventional and non-conventional sources. Conventional sources include: firewood, cattle dung cake, coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity (both hydel and thermal). Non-conventional sources include solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, biogas and atomic energy. Firewood and cattle dung cake are most common in rural India. Fig. 5.9 (b): A view from outside of a coal mine According to one estimate more than 70 per cent energy requirement in rural households time of burial. Decaying plants in swamps is met by these two ; continuation of these is produce peat. Which has a low carbon and increasingly becoming dif ficult due to high moisture contents and low heating decreasing forest area. Moreover, using dung capacity. Lignite is a low grade brown coal, cake too is being discouraged because it which is soft with high moisture content. The consumes most valuable manure which could principal lignite reserves are in Neyveli in Tamil be used in agriculture. Nadu and are used for generation of electricity. Coal that has been buried deep Conventional Sources of Energy and subjected to increased temperatures is Coal: In India, coal is the most abundantly bituminous coal. It is the most popular coal available fossil fuel. It provides a substantial in commercial use. Metallurgical coal is high part of the nation’s energy needs. It is used grade bituminous coal which has a special for power generation, to supply energy to value for smelting iron in blast furnaces. industry as well as for domestic needs. India Anthracite is the highest quality hard coal. is highly dependent on coal for meeting its In India coal occurs in rock series of two commercial energy requirements. main geological ages, namely Gondwana, a As you are already aware that coal is little over 200 million years in age and in formed due the compression of plant material tertiary deposits which are only about 55 over millions of years. Coal, therefore, is million years old. The major resources of found in a variety of forms depending on the Gondwana coal, which are metallurgical coal, degrees of compression and the depth and are located in Damodar valley (West Bengal- 50 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II Reprint 2024-25