According to the Indian Minerals Yearbook 2022, which State was on the second rank in the country in terms of Manganese production?

Question

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Correct — C, Maharashtra. The Indian Minerals Yearbook 2022 (Indian Bureau of Mines) states in its Manganese Ore chapter that Madhya Pradesh was the leading producing State with 31.50% of national manganese-ore production in 2021-22, followed by Maharashtra with about 27% and Odisha with about 19%. Maharashtra's output comes from the century-old Gondite-series mines of Bhandara and Nagpur districts — Dongri Buzurg, Kandri, Mansar, Gumgaon — most of them worked by MOIL Ltd, which is why it sits immediately behind Madhya Pradesh.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Third, not second — about 19% of production in 2021-22. Odisha is the trap because it tops the reserves/resources table (34% of India's manganese resources), but reserves in the ground are not the same as ore actually raised in a year.  (b) Karnataka is second in reserves/resources (about 24%), but its share of actual annual production is far below Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha — it is not the second-ranked producer.  (d) Madhya Pradesh is first, not second — 31.50% of production in 2021-22 (Balaghat, Chhindwara and Jhabua districts). The question asks specifically for rank two.

Concept: Manganese is an essential input in steel making (as ferro-manganese it removes oxygen and sulphur and hardens steel), so India's manganese map is really the map of its steel-supply minerals. Indian deposits are mostly metamorphosed bedded sedimentary ores — the Gondite series of Madhya Pradesh (Balaghat, Chhindwara, Jhabua) and Maharashtra (Bhandara, Nagpur), and the Kodurite series of Odisha (Ganjam, Koraput) and Andhra Pradesh (Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam). The commercially important ores are pyrolusite, psilomelane, manganite and braunite.

State PCS 2026 Q6 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q6 — Geography PYQ with Answer