SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 16 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 13 September 2026.

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The Kudremukh mines in Karnataka are primarily known for the extraction of which important mineral resource?

(a)Bauxite
(b)Limestone
(c)Iron Ore
(d)Copper

Answer

Why

Correct — C. NCERT's Class X geography text lists the Kudremukh mines, in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, under iron ore. It calls them a 100 per cent export unit whose deposits are among the largest in the world.

The ore, NCERT says, is transported as slurry through a pipeline to a port near Mangaluru → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bauxite — Bauxite, the aluminium ore, is NCERT's Odisha example: the Panchpatmali deposits in Koraput district are the state's most important. Kudremukh sits under iron ore.
(b)
Limestone — Limestone is a rock mineral found with rocks of calcium carbonates and is used mainly for cement. NCERT lists Kudremukh under iron ore, not limestone.
(d)
Copper — NCERT names the Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), Khetri (Rajasthan) and Singhbhum (Jharkhand) mines as leading copper producers. Kudremukh, in Karnataka, is an iron-ore site.

Concept

India's iron ore comes mainly as haematite and magnetite. NCERT calls magnetite the finest ore, with up to 70 per cent iron, and haematite the most important industrial ore by quantity, at 50-60 per cent iron.

NCERT groups the deposits into belts: Odisha-Jharkhand, Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur, Maharashtra-Goa and the Ballari-Chitradurga-Chikkamagaluru-Tumakuru belt in Karnataka.

Kudremukh, in the Western Ghats of Chikkamagaluru district, belongs to that Karnataka belt.

NCERT still describes Kudremukh in the present tense. Mining there was later stopped on environmental grounds after a Supreme Court order, so the question tests the textbook association rather than current output.

Key facts

The Kudremukh mines lie in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, in Chikkamagaluru district.
NCERT describes Kudremukh as a 100 per cent export unit whose ore goes as slurry by pipeline to a port near Mangaluru.
NCERT names Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), Khetri (Rajasthan) and Singhbhum (Jharkhand) as leading copper producers.
Magnetite is the finest iron ore, with up to 70 per cent iron. Haematite has 50-60 per cent.

Study next

India's iron-ore belts as NCERT lists themHaematite versus magnetite oreCopper and bauxite deposits: Khetri, Balaghat, Panchpatmali

Common traps

Assuming Kudremukh is still a working mine because the textbook describes it in the present tense.
Mixing up Kudremukh with Bailadila: both are iron ore, but Bailadila is in Chhattisgarh's Durg-Bastar-Chandrapur belt.

Iron ore is also asked at 15 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.14 (district–state pairs), 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.14 (Karnataka's reserves) and 16 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.14. Non-ferrous minerals such as copper appear at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.13, and bauxite at 24 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Economic Scene — all 144 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.