Mineral wealth of cuddapah basin and its use for sustainable development- An overview

Abstract

India is endowed with a rich variety of mineral resources due to varied geologic and tectonic milieu. To ensure sustainable development of mineral industry, in place of ill oriented approaches, it is essential to have a properly estimated resource and reserve statistics. This can be achieved if a pragmatic exploration strategy is adapted. One of the important segments known for mineral wealth is Cuddapah basin. Cuddapah basin, endowed with rich mineral wealth, is one of the important and fairly well studied geological units in peninsular India. Cuddapah basin has been well known for a variety of mineral resources, such as barytes, asbestos, copper, iron, fullerene, lead, diamonds, uranium, gold, silver, limestone, clay, quartz, talcsteatite, granites besides Cuddapah slabs. Recently it is also established that the basin`s hydrocarbon potential is good. Effective exploration strategy coupled with environmentally viable mineral specific mining and product development strategies need to be developed and used to have organized mineral industries, in and around Cuddapah basin, many parts of which are underdeveloped economically. In this write up specific details pertaining to source of a particular mineral from available details, implemented exploration strategy, statistics of overall resource and reserve details are listed. Organized strategy for safe mining practices and steps/ procedures to be adapted in establishing mineral industries, for sustainable development of the region are also detailed. © 2015 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.