Minerals and Energy Resources

This chapter studies the minerals and energy resources on which modern life and industry depend. It explains what a mineral is, how minerals occur (in veins and lodes, beds and layers, placer deposits and ocean waters), and how they are classified into metallic (ferrous and non-ferrous), non-metallic and energy minerals. It then describes India's important minerals with their uses and distribution — iron ore and manganese, copper and bauxite, mica and limestone — and the urgent need to conserve these finite resources and reduce the hazards of mining. The second half covers energy resources: conventional sources (coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity) and non-conventional sources (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, biogas and nuclear energy), ending with the conservation of energy. It is a fact-rich and highly scoring chapter of the Class 10 Geography (Contemporary India II) Board syllabus.