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has to be taken into consideration. Sometimes, world. In India, the Northern Plains generally lack
even rich mineral deposits are not mined because in minerals while the southern and western parts
of high costs of mining. The grade or quality of the have abundant minerals.
ore is also an important aspect. When the quality
Iron
is not good, it is not worth mining.
Iron is the most widely used metal. It is the
Sometimes, physical conditions make it difficult to backbone of the modern age. It is used in
mine minerals. For example, mineral deposits in
manufacturing tools, machines, agricultural
deserts or tropical forests have not been mined implements and things of general use. Iron ore is
because of difficult living conditions.
found in abundance and can be produced at a low
cost. Its demand is increasing, as it can be
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMPORTANT MINERALS
hammered, rolled, cast, drawn into wire, welded
An important characteristic of mineral resources is and combined with other metals to form alloys.
their uneven distribution over the earth. Some Haematite, magnetite and limonite are the main
areas are very rich in a variety of mineral varieties of iron ore, depending on the amount of
resources, like the Ural Mountains in Russia, iron content. Haematite is the best quality.
while large areas like the Amazon basin are poor
There are vast reserves of iron ore in Russia, the
in minerals.
USA, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, Brazil, Australia,
There are only a few regions in the world where Canada, China, France, Sweden, Venezuela and
some minerals are found in great abundance. For many other countries. Siberia and South Africa
example, most of the supply of tin around the have iron ore deposits with over 60% iron content.
world comes from eastern Asia (Malaysia, China, In India, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and
Indonesia and Thailand). More than half of the
Madhya Pradesh have iron ore deposits. India
world’s reserves of nickel is in Canada. South shares nearly 20% of the world reserve of iron ore
Africa supplies more than 60% of gold to the
and ranks sixth in the world in iron ore production.
A R C T I C O C E A N A R C T I C O C E A N

NORTH EUROPE
AMERICA
ASIA

NORTH
ATLANTIC NORTH
OCEAN PACIFIC
NORTH OCEAN
PACIFIC AFRICA
OCEAN
Equator Equator
SOUTH
AMERICA
INDIAN OCEAN
SOUTH
SOUTH PACIFIC
ATLANTIC AUSTRALIA OCEAN
OCEAN
SOUTH
PACIFIC WORLD—MINERALS
OCEAN
Iron-ore Bauxite
Manganese Copper
Silver Gold

Mineral resources in the world
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