Minerals and Energy Resources

From the iron in a railway track to the petrol in a car and the electricity that lights a home, modern life runs on minerals and energy. These resources are buried unevenly across the country. They take ages to form and cannot be remade once used. So they must be mined carefully and conserved. Knowing the kinds of minerals, the difference between conventional and non-conventional energy, and why conservation matters is core exam material.

A mineral is a naturally occurring substance that has a definite chemical composition. Minerals are usually found in rocks in the form of ores (rocks containing enough of a mineral to make mining worthwhile). They occur in different settings. In igneous and metamorphic rocks, minerals fill cracks and joints, forming veins and lodes. In sedimentary rocks they occur in layers called beds. They also form alluvial deposits in valley-floor sands, where heavy minerals like gold are concentrated.

Minerals are exhaustible and unevenly distributed, so mining must be planned and the precious deposits used with care.

Indian mining law sorts minerals into major and minor categories. Chromite, kyanite and sillimanite are examples of major minerals. Bentonite, like sand, is a minor mineral. The legal effect of this split is explained in the section on mineral policy.

The value of India's mineral output also follows a fixed order. Fuel minerals such as coal and petroleum contribute the largest share by value. Metallic minerals come second. Non-metallic minerals come third.

Metallic minerals are divided into two groups.

Ferrous minerals are those that contain iron. The most important is iron ore, the basic raw material of industry. India has good reserves of high-grade iron ore. Manganese, used to make steel and dry batteries, is another important ferrous mineral.

Non-ferrous minerals do not contain iron. They include copper (malleable and a good conductor, used in electrical wiring), bauxite (the ore from which aluminium is made), and lead, zinc and gold. India is not well supplied with some of these, especially copper.

The coastal sands of India add a special non-ferrous resource. Ilmenite and rutile, found in the beach sands of Kerala and other coasts, are titanium-bearing minerals: they are the ores from which titanium is obtained. State patterns can also surprise. Andhra Pradesh has gold mines, notably at Ramagiri, and Rajasthan, better known for copper and zinc, also holds iron ore deposits. Both states have auctioned mines for these minerals.

Exam questions often pair a mineral with its leading world producer:

• Copper: Chile is the world's largest producer. It holds the largest known porphyry copper deposits, and it is also resource-rich in lithium. Zambia in Africa is another major copper producer.
• Diamonds: Botswana leads world production.
• Nickel: Indonesia is the top producer.
• Cobalt: the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces about three-fourths of world output.
• Manganese: Gabon is a major producer.
• Bauxite: Guyana is a major producer.
• Mineral oil: Venezuela is a major producer.
• Gold: Switzerland is a leading gold exporter by value because it is a refining hub. It does not hold the second largest gold reserves in the world; its exports reflect refining, not mining.

Non-metallic minerals do not yield metals but are still vital. Mica splits into thin transparent sheets and resists heat and electricity. This makes it essential to the electrical and electronics industries. India is a leading producer. Limestone, found in sedimentary rocks, is the basic raw material for the cement industry and for smelting iron ore. Other examples are gypsum and salt.

Critical minerals are minerals essential for modern technology whose supply is limited or concentrated in a few countries. India has identified 30 such minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel and the rare earth elements. India is not resource-rich in all of them, so secure supply chains matter for national strategy.

These minerals power the clean-energy economy. In a lithium-ion battery, the kind used in electric vehicles, the cathode is typically made of lithium, cobalt and nickel. Graphite is also vital, but it forms the anode, not the cathode. Rare earth elements are a family of 17 metals with special magnetic and optical properties. Some of them, such as europium and terbium, are phosphorescent: they glow when energised. This property makes them essential in flat television screens, computer monitors and LED displays. Monazite, found in some Indian beach sands, is a natural source of rare earths and of thorium.

Mineral wealth follows geology, so deposits cluster in particular rock systems and states. The ancient Dharwar rocks of the peninsula are famous for gold and iron, not petroleum. The Gondwana beds hold most of India's coal, not natural gas. Petroleum and gas instead occur in younger sedimentary basins, onshore and offshore.

Key location facts, frequently tested as matching pairs:

• Coal: Giridih and Karanpura in Jharkhand; the Namchik-Namphuk coalfields, a rare Tertiary deposit, lie in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Lignite: Jayamkondam in Tamil Nadu, near the larger Neyveli field.
• Mica: Kodarma in Jharkhand is the leading belt; Nellore in Andhra Pradesh is another classic area.
• Copper: major reserves lie in Rajasthan (Alwar, Khetri), not Jharkhand.
• Nickel: Odisha holds about 90 percent of national resources.
• Manganese: Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (Balaghat, Bhandara); Dharwar in Karnataka is another old centre.
• Diamonds: Majhgawan near Panna in Madhya Pradesh; Balaghat is manganese country, not diamond country.
• Gold: Hutti in Karnataka, alongside the older Kolar fields.
• Lead-zinc: Zawar in Rajasthan; silver at Rampa in Andhra Pradesh; salt at Didwana in Rajasthan; graphite at Bellary; asbestos in Andhra Pradesh.
• Beach sands of Kerala: rich in heavy minerals such as ilmenite, zircon, sillimanite and monazite, but not tungsten.
• Chhattisgarh: naturally holds bauxite, dolomite, iron ore and even tin in the Bastar region.

Hydrocarbons have their own map. The Ravva offshore block, a productive oil field, lies in the Krishna-Godavari basin off Andhra Pradesh. Shale gas resources have been identified in several sedimentary basins, including the Cambay basin in Gujarat, the Cauvery basin in Tamil Nadu and the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Mining in India is governed by the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, called the MMDR Act. The Act divides minerals into major minerals and minor minerals, and the split decides who regulates them. The Central Government has the power to notify which minerals count as minor. Sand is a minor mineral under this law. Once a mineral is notified as minor, the State Governments take over: they frame the rules for granting concessions, issue mining leases, and make rules to prevent illegal mining. States also have the power to auction non-coal mines for major minerals in their territory.

Recent policy has focused on critical minerals. A 2023 amendment to the MMDR Act empowered the Central Government to exclusively auction mining leases and composite licences for certain critical minerals, taking these auctions out of state hands. India has also joined the Minerals Security Partnership, a grouping of countries that cooperates to build secure critical-mineral supply chains, because India is not self-sufficient in all 30 critical minerals it has identified.

Energy can come from conventional or non-conventional sources.

Conventional sources are the ones long in use:

• Coal: India's most abundant fossil fuel, which produces most electricity via thermal power plants and feeds industry.
• Petroleum (mineral oil): the main transport fuel and raw material for many products. India imports much of its needs.
• Natural gas: a cleaner fossil fuel found alongside petroleum.
• Thermal power: electricity generated by burning coal, oil, or gas.
• Hydroelectric power: electricity from the force of falling water at dams.
• Firewood: still an important cooking and heating fuel in rural homes.

Coal is graded by carbon content. Anthracite has the highest carbon content and is the best rank. Bituminous coal comes next, then lignite, and peat has the lowest carbon content. Most Indian coal comes from the Gondwana beds, and this Gondwana coal has high ash content but low sulphur content. The high ash lowers its heating value, while the low sulphur limits one kind of pollution.

Coal-based thermal plants need large amounts of water for cooling. Some plants on the coast use seawater for cooling. Others stand in water-stressed districts, where their demand competes with farms and homes. Ownership is mixed: both public corporations and private companies own coal-based thermal plants in India.

Two unconventional gases are tested on composition. Coalbed methane is gas held inside coal seams, and it is essentially pure methane. Shale gas, trapped in fine-grained shale rock, is also primarily methane. Neither is a mixture of propane and butane; that mixture describes LPG.

Pumped-storage hydropower uses two reservoirs at different heights. When power is surplus, water is pumped uphill. When demand peaks, the water runs back down through turbines. It is a long-duration energy storage technology, the main large-scale way to store electricity.

Project-and-place pairs recur in matching questions:

• Dul Hasti: a hydroelectric project on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Tapovan and Vishnugarh: hydroelectric projects in Uttarakhand.
• Idukki and Sabarigiri: hydroelectric projects in Kerala.
• Thermal stations: Kothagudem in Andhra Pradesh, Raichur in Karnataka, Mettur in Tamil Nadu, Wanakbori in Gujarat and Bokaro in Jharkhand.
• Ghatprabha: an irrigation project, not a power project.
• Ramganga: a multipurpose project, combining irrigation, water supply and power.

India's installed power capacity was about 95,000 MW around 2001 and rose to about 150,000 MW by 2008, with annual generation of roughly 660 billion kWh. The mix is dominated by thermal power, about 70 to 75 percent of capacity. Hydropower contributes about a quarter, and nuclear power only about 3 percent.

Because fossil fuels are exhaustible and cause pollution, India is turning to non-conventional, renewable sources.

The main non-conventional sources are:

• Solar energy: harnesses the Sun's heat and light, and is especially promising in sunny India.
• Wind energy: turbines convert wind into electricity. India has large wind farms.
• Tidal energy: generated from the rise and fall of ocean tides.
• Geothermal energy: drawn from heat within the Earth.
• Nuclear (atomic) energy: released from minerals like uranium and thorium.
• Biogas: produced from animal and farm waste, giving villages a clean cooking fuel and yielding good manure.

These sources are renewable and clean, and reduce dependence on imported fuel.

Several precise solar facts are tested:

• Largest solar park: Bhadla in Rajasthan hosts India's largest solar park.
• Solar airport: Cochin International Airport in Kerala runs fully on solar power.
• Floating solar: India's largest floating solar project is at Ramagundam in Telangana, not in Goa.
• Solar pumps: solar power can run both surface and submersible pumps, and both centrifugal and piston pumps. No pump type is excluded.
• Tariffs: solar power tariffs are discovered through competitive bidding and overseen by electricity regulatory commissions. SECI conducts auctions but does not fix tariffs.
• Manufacturing: India is not the world's largest manufacturer of silicon wafers; that capacity is concentrated abroad.
• Wind: Satara in Maharashtra is known for its wind energy plants.

This rooftop solar scheme targets one crore (10 million) rooftop solar installations for households. Under its capacity-building component, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) conducts grassroot-level training, aiming to skill about three lakh workers for installation and maintenance.

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are small power sources located near the point of use rather than at a central station. Rooftop solar photovoltaic units, battery storage, biomass generators and fuel cells all count as DERs. The sector's dedicated financier is IREDA, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency. IREDA is both a Public Limited Government Company and a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).

Nuclear fuel has its own geography. Australia holds the world's largest uranium reserves. Canada was the leading producer of uranium as of 2006. India's uranium endowment is modest, which is why its thorium-bearing monazite sands matter for the long term.

Hydrogen is emerging as a clean fuel because burning it or using it in a fuel cell releases no carbon. Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by splitting water with electricity from renewable sources. It is versatile: it can be burnt directly in internal combustion engines, blended with natural gas for heat or power generation, and fed to fuel cells that run vehicles. Green hydrogen is expected to decarbonise the hardest industries: fertiliser plants (where it replaces fossil-based hydrogen in ammonia synthesis), oil refineries (hydrotreating) and steel plants (direct reduction of iron).

A fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen in an electrochemical reaction to produce electricity. The only tailpipe emission of a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle is water vapour. Full battery electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and fuel cell electric hybrids are all counted as alternative powertrain vehicles, since none of them relies solely on a conventional combustion engine.

Microbial fuel cells are a related sustainable technology. They use living micro-organisms as catalysts to generate electricity from organic substrates, not inorganic ones. Installed in wastewater treatment plants, they can cleanse water and produce electricity at the same time.

Biofuels are fuels made from plant or organic matter. Ethanol is the most common. It is produced by fermenting sugar or starch crops. Sugarcane is the most efficient feedstock because its sucrose ferments directly; maize (corn) is the other major energy crop grown for ethanol. The United States is the world's largest ethanol producer, using corn, while Brazil comes second, using sugarcane. India's National Policy on Biofuels allows surplus and damaged food stock as raw material: cassava, damaged wheat grains, rotten potatoes and sugar beet qualify, but edible oilseeds like groundnut and pulses like horse gram do not.

Biodiesel comes from oilseed plants. Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata are the favoured Indian options. Pongamia grows naturally in arid regions and its seeds are rich in lipids, nearly half of which is oleic acid. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the nodal ministry for the National Biodiesel Mission. Sustainable Aviation Fuel widens the feedstock list further: agricultural residues, corn grain, wastewater treatment sludge and wood mill waste can all be used.

Biomass gasification converts farm residues such as coconut shells, groundnut shells and rice husk into a combustible producer gas. The gas is a mixture containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and it can run internal combustion engines as well as supply direct heat. Algae-based biofuels are technically possible on land in ponds and bioreactors, not only in the sea, but developing countries face two limits: the engineering needs high technology until plants are built, and viable production demands large facilities that raise ecological and social concerns.

India's energy sectors are run by a mix of public corporations and statutory regulators. In coal, the industry was nationalised under Indira Gandhi in the early 1970s. Coal blocks are now allocated through competitive auctions, not by lottery, and India still imports coal because domestic supply falls short. The Coal Controller's Organization is the major source of coal statistics in the Government of India. It also monitors the development of captive coal and lignite blocks and hears objections to government notifications acquiring coal-bearing areas. It does not police delivery timelines to end users.

In petroleum, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) regulates only the midstream and downstream: refining, storage and distribution, and the marketing and sale of petroleum products. Upstream production of crude oil and natural gas is outside its remit. PNGRB was not India's first regulator, and one of its tasks is to ensure competitive markets for gas. Appeals against its orders go to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, a single central tribunal that is not replicated state by state. Pricing reform has its own history: the Oil Pool Account, a mechanism that pooled fuel subsidies, was dismantled from 1 April 2002, after which subsidies on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG were borne by the Consolidated Fund of India. The B.K. Chaturvedi Committee examined price reform in the oil sector. Fuel quality had a separate committee: the Mashelkar Committee drafted the national auto fuel policy. It laid out a phased road map for cleaner fuels, but it did not recommend extending Bharat Stage-II norms to the whole country by April 2004. Statements that claim it did are wrong.

The power sector has seen repeated reform schemes:

• UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana): a 2015 scheme for the financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies.
• APDRP (Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme): included upgrading the sub-transmission and distribution system.
• Rural Electrification Policy, 2006: aimed to provide electricity access to all households by 2009; rural electrification was earlier a Basic Minimum Service under the Prime Minister's Gramodaya Yojana.
• FDI: 100 percent foreign direct investment is allowed in the power sector without an upper limit.
• Public corporations: NTPC, the thermal giant, has diversified into hydropower; the Central Statistical Organisation (now the NSO) brings out the publication "Energy Statistics". Power Grid Corporation carries telecom signals on its transmission network, but this telecom activity is not counted as a diversification into a new energy business; only NTPC's hydropower move qualifies.

Mineral and energy policy changed direction with the economic liberalisation of 1991. Liberalisation began with substantial changes in the industrial licensing policy: the New Industrial Policy of 1991 dismantled the Licence Raj, the system under which most industries needed government licences to operate or expand. Rupee convertibility, easier foreign investment and tax reform followed, but the licensing change came first. For minerals and energy this opened mining, oil and power to private and foreign investment, replacing state monopoly with regulated competition.

Minerals and fossil fuels took millions of years to form. They are being used up rapidly and cannot be replaced. Therefore conservation is essential. Practical steps include:

• Using minerals in a planned and careful way.
• Recycling metals such as iron and aluminium.
• Using public transport and energy-saving appliances to cut fuel use.
• Shifting steadily towards renewable sources of energy.