Mining

Mining is the extraction of Ore or Minerals from earth crust. Minerals constitute the back-bone of economic growth of any nation and India has been eminently endowed with this gift of na­ture. There are many evidence that exploitation of minerals like coal, iron-ore, copper, lead-zinc has been going on in the country from time immemorial. However, the first recorded history of mining in India dates back to 1774 when an English Company was granted permission by the East India Company for mining coal in Raniganj. M/s John Taylor & Sons Ltd. started gold mining in Kolar Gold Fields in the year 1880. The first oil well was drilled in Digboi in the year 1866 - just seven years after the first ever oil well was drilled anywhere in the world viz. in Pennsylvania State, USA in 1859. Mining activities in the country however remained primitive in nature and modest in scale uptill the beginning of the current century. Thereafter, with progressive industrialisation the demand for and hence the production of various minerals gradually went up. After India became independent, the growth of mining under the impact of successive Five Year Plans has been very fast. There are ambitious plans in coal, metalliferous and oil sectors to in­crease production of minerals during the 8th Five Year Plan and thereafter.
India is largely self sufficient in most of the minerals which include barytes, bauxite, chromite, dolomite, fluorspar, gypsum, iron ore, kyanite, limestone, manganese ore, magnesite, sillimanite, etc. except the minerals like copper, asbestos, lead and zinc, natural phosphates, sulphur and crude petroleum, in which domestic production meets the demand only partially.
India is rich in the resources of minerals like iron ore, bauxite, manganese, baryte etc. It has resources of 12745 million tonnes of iron ore, 2,525 million tonnes of bauxite, 76446 million tonnes of limestone, 233 million tonnes of magnesite, 167 million tonnes of lead & zinc ore, 70 million tonnes of barytes, 176 million tonnes of manganese ore and 90 million tonnes of chromite. The reserves of iron ore, bauxite and manganese accounts for nearly 7 per cent, 16 per cent and 6 per cent respectively of the total known global resources of these minerals. India possesses the largest known reserves of barytes in the world.
In India Mining Industry is providing jobs for Lakhs of people, both Private and Public sectors are having Mining Leases and are working. Government is also getting lots of revenue form Mining Industry. The Indian Mining Industry got financial backup or loans from Banks and Financial Institutions.
Mining methods can be classified as Opencast Mining and Underground Mining.
Sorce : http://theminingtoday.com