Which among the following is correctly matched?
- (1)Manganese – Bailadila
- (2)Bauxite – Lohardaga
- (3)Iron – Koderma
- (4)Mica – Talcher
Answer
Why
Correct — option (2), Bauxite – Lohardaga.
Lohardaga, in Jharkhand, is a bauxite area. NCERT's Class XII book India: People and Economy (2019-20 print) says the patlands of Lohardaga in Jharkhand have rich bauxite deposits. Wikipedia's article on the town describes it as known for its bauxite mines, with Hindalco among the companies operating them.
The other three options each name a real mining area but give it the wrong mineral:
Bailadila, in Chhattisgarh, is an iron-ore area.
Koderma, in Jharkhand, is linked with mica.
Talcher, in Odisha, is a coal-mining centre.
So the one correct pair is Bauxite – Lohardaga.
Lohardaga – bauxite; Bailadila – iron ore; Koderma – mica; Talcher – coal.
Why the others are wrong
- (1)Manganese – Bailadila — Bailadila is an iron-ore area. NCERT traces India's iron-ore belt from Odisha and Jharkhand on to Durg, Dantewara and Bailadila, and Wikipedia describes the Bailadila range, in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, as a mining area producing very high grade iron ore.
NCERT's manganese areas are elsewhere: Odisha's Bonai and Kendujhar, the Balaghat–Chhindwara belt of Madhya Pradesh, and Nagpur and Bhandara in Maharashtra, among others.
- (3)Iron – Koderma — Koderma is associated with mica, not iron. Wikipedia's article on Koderma district says that at one time Koderma was considered the mica capital of India.
NCERT places Jharkhand's high-quality mica in a belt about 150 km long and 22 km wide in the lower Hazaribagh plateau, and names Jharkhand's important iron-ore mines as Noamundi and Gua.
- (4)Mica – Talcher — Talcher is a coal area. NCERT lists Talcher and Rampur in Odisha among India's important coal-mining centres.
NCERT's account of mica names places such as Jharkhand's lower Hazaribagh plateau, Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, and a Rajasthan belt of about 320 km from Jaipur to Bhilwara and around Udaipur. Talcher does not appear in it.
Concept
Bauxite is the ore used to make aluminium. NCERT explains that it is found mainly in tertiary deposits associated with laterite rocks, on the plateaus and hill ranges of peninsular India and in coastal tracts.
NCERT's bauxite areas include Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Bolangir and Koraput in Odisha, the patlands of Lohardaga in Jharkhand, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar in Gujarat, the Amarkantak plateau in Chhattisgarh, and Katni-Jabalpur and Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh.
Production shares are dated figures. The Indian Minerals Yearbook 2021 of the Indian Bureau of Mines, issued in December 2023 after this exam, reports Odisha as the leading producing State in 2020-21, with about 76% of India's bauxite output.
RPSC's 2021 Prelims syllabus lists "Major Minerals- Iron ore, Manganese, Bauxite, Mica" under the Geography of India. Mining areas and their minerals fall under that head.
Two of the four places, Lohardaga and Koderma, are in Jharkhand, and NCERT names Noamundi and Gua as that State's iron-ore mines. Lohardaga has bauxite and Koderma is linked with mica, so the State alone does not settle a pair.
Rajasthan belongs to the mica map too: NCERT describes a mica belt of about 320 km from Jaipur to Bhilwara and around Udaipur.
Key facts
- NCERT (Class XII, India: People and Economy, 2019-20 print): the patlands of Lohardaga in Jharkhand have rich bauxite deposits.
- NCERT: India's iron-ore belt extends to Durg, Dantewara and Bailadila; Wikipedia places the Bailadila range in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh.
- Wikipedia (Koderma district): at one time Koderma was considered the mica capital of India.
- NCERT: Talcher and Rampur in Odisha are important coal-mining centres.
- NCERT: Rajasthan's mica belt extends about 320 km from Jaipur to Bhilwara and around Udaipur.
Each option names a real mining area; only Lohardaga is paired with its own mineral. Sources: NCERT India: People and Economy (2019-20 print); Wikipedia.
Study next
Common traps
- Settling a pair by State. Lohardaga, Koderma and the Noamundi–Gua iron mines are all in Jharkhand, but each has a different mineral.
- Mixing minerals that share a belt. NCERT lists Bonai and Kendujhar in Odisha for both iron ore and manganese, yet Bailadila appears only in its iron-ore account.
- Trusting a familiar place name. Every option names a real mining area; in each wrong option the error is the mineral attached to it.
A question can pair minerals with mining areas and ask for the correct match, as this one does.
A question can also ask for the wrong pair, name a mining area and ask for its mineral, or ask which State a mining belt lies in.
Related PYQs
Kalakhuta, Leelwani, Nardiya, Timmamori are producing regions of which mineral in Rajasthan ?
- (1) Manganese
- (2) Tungsten
- (3) Copper
- (4) Iron ore
Answer(1)
Same skill of tying mining places to a mineral, inside Rajasthan. That item asks which mineral Kalakhuta, Leelwani, Nardiya and Timmamori produce (RPSC's key: option (1), Manganese); this one pairs minerals with mining areas across India.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Bailadila range of Chhattisgarh is known for mining of –
- (a)Iron ore
- (b)Manganese
- (c)Bauxite
- (d)Coal
Answer(1) — NCERT includes Bailadila in India's iron-ore belt, and Wikipedia describes the range as producing very high grade iron ore. Option (2), manganese, option (3), bauxite, and option (4), coal, are not the minerals NCERT links with Bailadila. - practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following is correctly matched?
- (a)Coal – Kudremukh
- (b)Mica – Nellore
- (c)Bauxite – Noamundi
- (d)Iron ore – Talcher
Answer(2) — NCERT says Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh produces the best quality mica. Option (1), Kudremukh, is an iron-ore area; option (3), Noamundi, an iron-ore mine; option (4), Talcher, a coal-mining centre.