India has a large number of economically useful minerals and they constitute one-quarter of the world's known mineral resources. About two-thirds of its iron deposits lies in a belt along Orissa and Bihar border.
Other haemaite deposits are found in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra and Goa. Magnetite iron-ore is found in Tamilnadu, Bihar and Himachal.
India has the world's largest deposits of coal. Bituminous coal is found in Jharia and Bokaro in Bihar and Ranigunj in West Bengal. Lignite coals are found in Neyveli in Tamilnadu.
Next to Russia, India has the largest supply of Manganese. The manganese mining areas are Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Bihar-Orissa area. Chromite deposits are found in Bihar, Cuttack district in Orissa, Krishna district in Andhra and Mysore and Hassan in Karnataka. Bauxite deposits are found in western Bihar, southwest Kashmir, Central Tamilnadu, and parts of Kerala, U.P, Maharastra and Karnataka.
India also produces third quarters of the world's mica. Belts of high quality mica are, Bihar, Andhra and Rajasthan. Gypsum reserves are in Tamilnadu and Rajasthan. Nickel ore is found in Cuttack in Bihar and Mayurbanj in Orissa. Ileminite reserves are in Kerala and along the east and the west coastal beaches.
Silimanite reserves are in Sonapahar of Meghalaya and in Pipra in M.P. Copper ore bearing areas are Agnigundala in Andhra, Singhbum in Bihar, Khetri and Dartiba in Rajasthan and parts of Sikkhim and Karnataka.
The Ramagiri field in Andhra, Kolar and Hutti in Karnataka are the important gold mines.
The Panna diamond belt is the only diamond producing area in the country, which covers the districts of Panna, Chatarpur and Satna in Madya Pradesh, as well as some parts of Banda in Uttar Pradesh.
Petroleum deposits are found in Assam and Gujarat. Fresh reserves were located off Bombay. The potential oil bearing areas are, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, west Bengal, Punjab, Himachal, Kutch and the Andamans.
India also possesses the all-too valuable nuclear uranium as well as some varieties of rare earths.
Source--http://www.indianmirror.com/geography/geo4.html
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