SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 13 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which group consists of non-ferrous metallic minerals that are scarce in India?

(a)Iron, Coal, Bauxite
(b)Copper, Zinc, Lead
(c)Manganese, Bauxite, Limestone
(d)Mica, Dolomite, Felspar

Answer

Why

Correct — B. NCERT's Class X Contemporary India II says India's reserves and production of non-ferrous minerals are "not very satisfactory", naming copper, bauxite, lead, zinc and gold, and adds that India is critically deficient in copper.

Copper, zinc and lead are all non-ferrous metals, with no iron in them, and all three are on NCERT's list. So option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Iron, Coal, Bauxite — Iron ore is ferrous, and NCERT says India is endowed with fairly abundant resources of it. Coal is an energy mineral, not a metal.
(c)
Manganese, Bauxite, Limestone — A mixed group: manganese is a ferrous mineral in NCERT's classification, bauxite is non-ferrous, and limestone is non-metallic.
(d)
Mica, Dolomite, Felspar — These are non-metallic minerals, not metals. Mica heads NCERT's list of non-metallic examples, and dolomite and felspar are industrial minerals of the same kind.

Concept

NCERT's classification (Fig. 5.1) splits metallic minerals into ferrous (its examples: iron ore, manganese, nickel, cobalt), non-ferrous (copper, lead, tin, bauxite) and precious (gold, silver, platinum).

Non-metallic minerals include mica, salt, potash, sulphur, granite, limestone, marble and sandstone. Coal, petroleum and natural gas are energy minerals.

Bauxite is non-ferrous too, but each option that includes it pairs it with a ferrous, energy or non-metallic mineral, so neither of those groups is wholly non-ferrous.

Key facts

NCERT: India's reserves and production of non-ferrous minerals are not very satisfactory.
NCERT names copper, bauxite, lead, zinc and gold as non-ferrous minerals vital to metallurgical, engineering and electrical industries.
NCERT: India is critically deficient in the reserve and production of copper.
Ferrous minerals account for about three-fourths of the total value of India's metallic mineral production.

Study next

Distribution of copper and bauxite in IndiaIron ore and manganese belts of IndiaMica and the other non-metallic minerals

Common traps

Taking manganese for non-ferrous, when NCERT classes it as ferrous alongside iron ore.
Counting coal as a metallic mineral, when NCERT classes it as an energy mineral.

Here a mineral group must pass two tests at once: non-ferrous, and scarce in India. The same NCERT chapter is tested at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.14, which asks the role of non-metallic minerals in India (keyed rich reserves vital for major industries).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 135 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.