Non-ferrous minerals: bauxite, copper, lead-zinc and gold

Detail

What "non-ferrous" means

• Non-ferrous minerals are metallic minerals that contain no iron. Examples are bauxite (aluminium), copper, lead, zinc and gold.
• India has a lot of bauxite. It is short of copper and gold. Almost all its lead-zinc comes from one state, Rajasthan.
• India is self-sufficient in aluminium and zinc. This means it makes enough of both for its own needs (2022-23) [3].

Bauxite: the ore and how it forms

• Bauxite is a clay-like ore. It is processed in two steps:
• Bauxite → alumina (aluminium oxide), made in a refinery.

• Alumina → aluminium, made in a smelter using a great deal of electricity.

• Bauxite is a rock rich in hydrated aluminium oxide (aluminium oxide joined with water). It also holds small amounts of iron oxide, silica and titania. It is the main ore of aluminium, and it is also used in the refractory (heat-resistant brick) and chemical industries [2].

• Why aluminium matters: it is strong but very light. It also conducts heat and electricity well, and it is malleable (can be beaten into thin sheets).

• NCERT's Class 10 box tells a story about Napoleon III. At one time aluminium was so costly that his most honoured guests ate with aluminium spoons and forks, while the others used gold ones.

• How bauxite forms (cause → process → result):

• Cause: hot, wet tropical climate in Tertiary times (about 65 to 2 million years ago).
• Process: heavy rain slowly broke down rocks rich in aluminium silicates. Rainwater washed away the silica and other soluble parts. Aluminium oxide stayed behind.
• Result: residual deposits (deposits left in place after weathering). They are found together with laterite (a red, iron- and aluminium-rich soil formed by heavy leaching) on the peninsular plateaus, the hill ranges and in coastal tracts.

Bauxite: reserves, production and distribution

• Reserves and resources (1 April 2020): 4,958 million tonnes in total. Of this, 646 million tonnes are Reserves (proved and ready to mine) and 4,311 million tonnes are Remaining Resources [2].
• About 79% is metallurgical grade (good enough to make aluminium). Refractory and chemical grades together make up only about 4% [2].

• Most resources lie in the East Coast bauxite deposits of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh [2].

• Production: 22,494 thousand tonnes in 2021-22, about 10% more than the year before [2]. It was about 23 million tonnes in 2022-23 [3], and 22.7 million tonnes in FY 2024-25 (April-February), up 3.6% from 21.9 million tonnes in the same months of FY 2023-24 [4].

• Producers: NALCO (National Aluminium Company, a public sector company) is the largest single producer, with 33% of output. Public sector mines produced about 49% (2021-22) [2].

State	Share of bauxite resources (1.4.2020) [2]	Main deposits (NCERT)
Odisha	41% (1st)	Kalahandi, Sambalpur (leading); Bolangir, Koraput (rising); Panchpatmali (Koraput)
Chhattisgarh	20% (2nd)	Amarkantak plateau
Andhra Pradesh	12%	East Coast deposits
Gujarat	8%	Bhavnagar, Jamnagar
Jharkhand	6%	Patlands of Lohardaga
Maharashtra	5%	Kolaba, Thane, Ratnagiri, Satara, Pune, Kolhapur
Madhya Pradesh	4%	Katni-Jabalpur, Balaghat; Maikal hills

• Odisha produces the most bauxite. It gave about 73% of India's output in 2021-22 [2].
• Gujarat held about 84% of the bauxite stocks kept at the mine head at the end of 2021-22 [2].
• The Class 10 NCERT book lists the bauxite belts as the Amarkantak plateau, the Maikal hills and the plateau region of Bilaspur-Katni.
• Patlands are flat-topped laterite plateaus of the Chotanagpur region (Jharkhand), such as those around Lohardaga.

Panchpatmali and the aluminium chain

• Panchpatmali is a bauxite deposit on a flat hilltop in Koraput district, Odisha. It is the state's most important bauxite deposit.

• Mine at Panchpatmali → alumina refinery at Damanjodi (Koraput) → aluminium smelter at Angul. All three belong to NALCO.

• Other aluminium smelters are built near cheap power:

• Hindalco, Renukoot (Uttar Pradesh), close to the Rihand hydel project.
• BALCO, Korba (Chhattisgarh), on the Korba coalfield.

• Vedanta, Jharsuguda (Odisha).

• Output (2022-23): alumina about 4.9 million tonnes; aluminium 4,066 thousand tonnes, the highest in the decade [3]. Alumina still made up 2.73% of the value of India's mineral imports in 2022-23 [3].

The Niyamgiri bauxite case

• Niyamgiri hills lie across Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, Odisha. Their tops hold bauxite.
• Vedanta planned to mine this bauxite to feed its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh (Kalahandi).
• The Dongria Kondh are a PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group: a tribe with very low population, literacy and development). They see the hills as sacred, the home of their god Niyam Raja. This is an example of sacred geography (land valued for faith, not just for resources).
• Orissa Mining Corporation v. Ministry of Environment and Forests (April 2013):
• The Supreme Court said the local gram sabhas (village assemblies) must decide. This power comes from the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and PESA, 1996 (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act).

• All 12 gram sabhas voted against mining (2013). The project stopped.

• Why it matters:

• It became a landmark case for community consent before mining, and for a tribe's right to its culture and religion.
• It is linked to the resource curse (areas rich in minerals often stay poor and see conflict, because the gains go elsewhere while local people lose land and forests).

Copper: properties and uses

• Copper is:
• Malleable (can be beaten into sheets) and ductile (can be drawn into wires).
• A very good conductor of electricity and heat.

• Easy to alloy (mix with other metals). For example, copper is mixed with gold to make jewellery stronger.

• Uses: electric cables and wires, motors, transformers, generators, electronics and the chemical industry.

• India is critically short of copper. In 2022-23, copper ores and concentrates were India's second-largest mineral import by value (8.38%), after diamonds [3].

Copper: distribution

Belt	State	Key mines / notes
Singhbhum	Jharkhand	Ghatsila, Mosabani (old copper belt)
Balaghat	Madhya Pradesh	Malanjkhand, India's largest open-cast copper mine (NCERT Fig. 5.4)
Khetri belt	Rajasthan	Jhunjhunu (Khetri) and Alwar
Minor deposits	AP, Karnataka, TN	Agnigundala (Guntur, AP); Chitradurga and Hassan (Karnataka); South Arcot (Tamil Nadu)

• Hindustan Copper Ltd (a public sector company) runs these mines.
• Copper ore output: 3,326 thousand tonnes in 2022-23, 7% lower than the 3,570 thousand tonnes of 2021-22 [3].
• Refined copper: copper cathode production was 554 thousand tonnes in 2022-23, up 14%. Blister copper output was zero in 2022-23 [3].
• The Sterlite smelter at Thoothukudi (Tamil Nadu) closed in 2018. Since then India has depended more on imported copper concentrate.

• Because of this, recycling copper scrap matters for supply.

• Critical mineral (2023): copper is one of the 30 critical minerals India named in 2023 [5].

• A critical mineral is one that is very important for the economy and national security but whose supply is at risk (few sources, mostly imported).
• The MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 added 24 of these minerals to Part D of the First Schedule of the MMDR Act, 1957, as "critical and strategic minerals" [6][5].

Lead-zinc

• Lead-zinc ores usually occur together in sulphide ores (metal joined with sulphur). Zinc is used mainly for galvanising, which means coating steel with zinc so it does not rust. Lead is used in batteries.
• Rajasthan is almost India's only source. All the main mines belong to Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL):

Mine	District (Rajasthan)	Note
Rampura Agucha	Bhilwara	One of the world's largest zinc mines
Zawar	Udaipur	Old mining area
Sindesar Khurd	Rajsamand	Underground mine
Rajpura-Dariba	Rajsamand	Lead-zinc-silver ores

• Ownership: Rampura Agucha is run by Hindustan Zinc. Vedanta Ltd owns about 64.9% of HZL and the Government of India about 29.5% [7].
• Production (2022-23): lead-zinc ore 16,744 thousand tonnes; lead concentrate 377 thousand tonnes; zinc concentrate 1,670 thousand tonnes. All of these were the highest in the decade [3].
• Metal (2022-23): primary lead 211 thousand tonnes (up 10%) and zinc ingots 821 thousand tonnes (up 8%, the highest in the decade) [3].
• Latest trend: lead concentrate output rose 3.5% to 352 thousand tonnes in FY 2024-25 (April-February), from 340 thousand tonnes in the same months of FY 2023-24 [4].
• Silver is a by-product (a material that comes out alongside the main product) of lead-zinc smelting. Output was 794 tonnes in 2022-23, the highest in the decade [3].

Gold

• Hutti gold mine is in Raichur district, Karnataka, in the Hutti-Maski schist belt (old, folded rocks of the Dharwar system). It is India's main working primary gold mine, run by Hutti Gold Mines Ltd (owned by the Karnataka government).

• Output in June 2025: Hutti produced 68.88 kg and the nearby Uti mine 2.05 kg [8].

• Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) are in Kolar district, Karnataka. Mining began in 1880, and the mines were among the deepest in the world. They closed in 2001 because the ore ran low and mining cost more than the gold was worth.

• Primary gold (gold mined from ore) was only 1,433 kg in 2022-23 [3].
• Total gold output was 13,854 kg in 2022-23. This total includes gold recovered as a by-product from refining imported copper [3].
• India meets most of its gold demand through imports.

Prelims Hooks

• Panchpatmali (bauxite) is in Koraput, Odisha. NALCO's refinery is at Damanjodi and its smelter is at Angul.
• Bauxite resources by state (1.4.2020): Odisha 41% > Chhattisgarh 20% > Andhra Pradesh 12% > Gujarat 8% > Jharkhand 6% > Maharashtra 5% > MP 4% [2].
• Patlands of Lohardaga = bauxite, Jharkhand. Trap: they are not in Chhattisgarh.
• Malanjkhand = copper, Balaghat (MP), the largest open-cast copper mine. Khetri = copper, Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan). Agnigundala = copper, Guntur (AP).
• Rampura Agucha = zinc, Bhilwara, Rajasthan (Hindustan Zinc). Trap: Zawar is in Udaipur; Rajpura-Dariba and Sindesar Khurd are in Rajsamand.
• Hutti = working gold mine, Raichur. KGF = Kolar, closed 2001. Both are in Karnataka.
• Niyamgiri (2013): the Supreme Court gave the decision to the gram sabhas under the FRA and PESA. All 12 rejected Vedanta's bauxite mining. The tribe is the Dongria Kondh and their deity is Niyam Raja.
• Copper is in India's list of 30 critical minerals (2023). Bauxite and zinc are not. India is self-sufficient in aluminium and zinc [5][3].
• Bauxite forms as residual deposits with laterite, from Tertiary weathering of aluminium silicate rocks.

Mains Points

• Distribution pattern (GS-I): non-ferrous minerals lie mainly in the old peninsular rocks.
• Bauxite sits on laterite-capped plateaus: the Eastern Ghats in Odisha and AP, Amarkantak-Maikal, and the Western Ghats in Maharashtra.
• Copper lies in the old metamorphic belts of Singhbhum, Balaghat and Khetri.
• Lead-zinc is found almost only in the Aravalli rocks of Rajasthan.

• This uneven spread pushes industry to locate near the ore or near power: bauxite in Odisha leads to smelters at Angul and Jharsuguda, and coal-based power draws BALCO to Korba.

• Resource security (GS-III): India is surplus in bauxite, aluminium and zinc but deficient in copper and gold.

• Copper ores and concentrates are 8.38% of India's mineral import bill (2022-23), and the Thoothukudi smelter has been shut since 2018 [3].

• Policy responses: copper added to the critical minerals list (2023), the MMDR Amendment 2023, exploration of deep-seated deposits, overseas mines, and scrap recycling [5][6].

• Mining vs. community rights (GS-I/III): the Niyamgiri verdict (2013) made the consent of gram sabhas under FRA and PESA a real check on mining.

• Bauxite-rich hills are often forested, tribal and sacred (Koraput, Kalahandi, Rayagada). The poverty seen alongside mineral wealth here shows the resource curse.

• The way forward includes the District Mineral Foundation (a fund from mining money spent on the affected districts), benefit-sharing and cultural impact assessment.

• Conservation: India's primary gold output is small (1,433 kg in 2022-23) and its high-grade ores are running out, as the closure of KGF shows [3].

• This argues for recycling, recovering by-products (gold and silver from copper and lead-zinc smelting), and using low-grade ores.