Abstracto

Mineral Resources of Telangana State, India: The Way Forward

P. Rameshchandra Phani

The paper presents a summary of mineral resources available in the newly formed Telangana state and associated aspects for socio-economic development of the State in time to come. The region was not given much attention in past decades for large scale exploration though it has rich mineral wealth and production is present is limited to coal, limestone, dolomites, quartz, feldspar and building stones. The hidden mineral wealth requires systematic investigations to obtain reliable data on uniform pattern for making policy and plans, through professional agencies in terms of terrain consideration, quantity and quality assessment of the mineral deposits; exploration techniques and its environmental impact assessment; policy and legal framework etc. The recent discovery of uranium is economically very promising which can be utilised for electric power generation. There is a substantial scope for other premier minerals like zinc, base metal sulphides, and platinoid group in the State. The coal deposits need to be further investigated for CBM and gasification. Investigations are vital to discover new deposits in Telangana with existing mineral occurrences as path finders, in light of modern technology. It is suggested to set up mineral based industries/plants, such as fertilizer, cement and calcium carbide, coking plants, refractory and abrasive units and cutting and polishing units for state’s socio-economic growth.