India is fairly reach in mineral resources and had sufficiently large reserves of iron ore, coal, manganese, bauxite and mica. Most fundamentally the distribution of various minerals in a region is a result of geological history of an era. Therefore, various minerals occur in India in its different region.  Brief descriptions of the distribution of major minerals across Indian Land mass are as follows.

Iron Ore : Iron is the basis of industrial civilization. Though iron occurs in the form of large number of compounds, not for all of them are considered as viable ores. The four most important of iron are Magnetite, Hematite, Limonite and Siderite.

Iron ore is one of the most widely distributed ore in India. The important mining areas are Singhbhum in Jharkhand, and Keonjhar, Talcher and Mayurbhanj in Odissa. Other Important producers of Iron ore besides Jharkhand and Odissa are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Goa, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odissa and Rajasthan have the Hematite reserve and Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala have Magnetite ore. Iron ore is one of the important item of India‘s export trade.

Bauxite: It s the ore of Aluminum. The ore is first process to from alumina and is further processed to obtain aluminum. The major areas of mining for this ore are Ranchi in Jharkhand, Balaghat and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, Bilashpur in Chhattisgarh and Belgaum and Thane in Maharashtra. Odissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are also important producers of Bauxite.

Coal and Lignite: Anthracite, Bituminous, lignite and peat are the major types of coal, in descending order of carbon content. Like Iron ore Coal is also found in several parts of India. The important Coal fields are Jharia, Bokaro, Giridih  and Kanakpura in Jharkhand, Raniganj in West Bengal, Chanda and Pench valley in Madhya Pradesh and Singareni in Andhara Pradesh. Parts of Maharastra and Odissa also  have coal deposits. Neyveli is well known for lignite deposits. Some tertiary coal occurs in Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland also. Namchuk Nampuk Fields is an important coal bearing area in Arunachal Pradesh.

Petroleum and Natural Gas: Oil and Natural gas are fuel and they occur in sedimentary basin, generally the areas of marine sediments. The oldest oil fields of India are Lakhimpur and Dibrugardh areas of Assam. Digboi has the oldest oil well in the country. Important oil fields are Diboi , Naharkatiya, Moran , Sibsagar and Rudrasagar in Assam Region, Cambay , Kalol, and Ankleshwar in Gujrat and the Bombay High region offshore of Ratnagri district in Maharashtra. Krishna , Kaveri and Godvari basin are also have potential oil reserves. Natural gas occurs either with oil deposits or independently in gas fields. Assam and Gujarat regions have impotent gas deposits. Large reserves of Natural reserves have been also discovered in   Rajasthan. Moreover, Godavari and Krishna basin also have gas deposits.

Copper: India is rather poor in copper deposits. Important areas are Angingundala in Andhra Pradesh, Singhbhum, Mosambi and Rakha IN Jharkhand, Malankhand in Madhya Pradesh, Khetri and Dariba in Rajasthan and Chitradugra in Karnataka. Darjeeling and Sikkim also have some copper deposits. Khetri has the largest copper smelting unit.  

Diamonds: Diamond is the Hardest substance and India is rather poor in diamond deposits. They are found in ancient metamorphic rocks. Panna belt sin Madhya Pradesh is most important area in India for diamonds. Other areas are in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Gold: India is poor in gold reserves also. There are three main areas where gold is mined. Ramgiri fields in Anantpur district Andhra Pradesh, Kolar gold fields in kolar distict in Karnataka and Hutti mines in Raichur district in Karnataka. Negligible amount of gold  is also obtained from sands of river Subarnarekha. Kolar mines are amongst the deepest mines in the world and due to great depth and declining production, the cost of production here is very high.

Lead and Zinc: These two minerals generally occurs together. Zinc ore occurs in Zawar and Banjawai areas of Rjasthan and in Gujrat. Lead ore found in Agingundala ( Andhra Pradesh) and Sarpalle ( Odissa) also. Tundu smelter in Bihar process the lead zinc ore from Zawar.

Manganese: India has fairly reserves of manganese and the country is one of the important exporters of manganese in the world. Odissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have the major deposits.

Mica: it is non metallic mineral and India is the largest producer and exporter of mica. Better deposits of mica occur in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand and Gaya district of Bihar. Nellor district of Andhra Pradesh and Koderma district of Jharkhand are also important mica production region in India.  India had almost monopoly in international market as concerned with mica exports. However, with the development of substitutes of this mineral, production of mica in India has suffered in recent times.

Limestone: An important raw material for cement, iron and steel industry. Limestone deposits in India is mainly found in  Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu,  Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odissa, Rajasthan and Karnataka are the important producers. Dehradun region of Uttrakhnad also had deposits of good quality of limestone.

Marble: It is a metamorphic rock used as building material. Rajasthan is important for marble mining. Makrana is the famous mining centre.

Granite: Use of granite as building material has caught up rather recently. Good deposits of granite are found in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Gypsum: Gypsum is used in cement industry and for reclamation of alkaline soils. Jodhpur and Bikaner districts of Rajasthan have rich deposits of gypsum. Tamil Nadu , Jammu  and Kashmir , Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have gypsum deposits.

Nickel: Indian is poor in reservoir this mineral. Nickel deposits are found in Cuttack and Mayurbhanj in odissa.  Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu also have some Nickel deposits.

Silver : India is also poor in silver deposits. Sliver deposits in India are manly confined to the Kolar region of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. Galena and the lead Zinc ores of Zawar are the principle ores of silver which are found in India.

Antimony: Antinomy deposits are found in Punjab, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Asbestos: It is fibrous material and is used for making sheets, which is further used in construction of buildings. Asbestos deposits are found in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

Barytes:  Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have Barytes deposits.

Chromites: Important deposits of this ore occur in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odissa and Tamil Nadu.

Dolomite: it is an important raw material for iron and steel industry.. it is used as flux during the process of iron smelting. Dolomite deposits occur mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odissa, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Maharashtra

Graphite: Odissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have Graphite deposits.

Sulphur: Sulphur finds application in chemical industry. Deposits are found in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Tin: India is rather poor in tin also. The major deposits of Tin are found in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Thorium: It is nuclear energy mineral. It is produced from beach sands found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. India is among the richest countries in the world in deposits of thorium.

Uranium: it is also nuclear energy mineral. Jaduguda mines of Jharkhand are the important producing area of this mineral. Uranium deposits also occur in Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Beryllium: Beryllium deposits occur in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Magnesite: It is an important refectory material and it occurs in Tamil Nadu.  Some deposits also found in Almora and Pithoragarh in the Himalayas.

Rock Phosphate: It is an important raw material for manufacturing phosphatic fertilizer. India does not have large deposits of phosphates. The deposits of this mineral is confined to the  Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh and also found in Jharkhand.

Salt: Salt is a important raw material for chemical industries. Most of the salt consumed in India is obtained from sea. Gujarat is a leading producer of sea salt. Some Salt is produced from salt lakes also, Sambhar and Deedwana lakes in Rajasthan are important producers. In addition salt is also obtained from rocks, Rock salt deposit occur in Mandi of Himachal Pradesh.