Question

Which one of the following states is the largest producer of copper in India?
A) Orissa
B) Karnataka
C) Madhya Pradesh
D) Gujarat

Answer 1

Hint:
There are only three states involved in India involved in the production of copper ore. Only about $2\% $ of the world copper production is produced in India. But it is still within the first 20 countries of the world in production.

Complete answer:
The potential reserve of our country is limited to 60,000 sq. km ($2\% $ of the world’s production) of which 20,000 sq. km is subjected to exploration as of 2012. India is one of the largest importers in line with Japan, China, Germany and South Korea. Both underground and opencast methods are used for mining. The major copper mines are the Singhbhum copper belt in Jharkhand, Khetri copper belt in Rajasthan and Malanjkhand copper belt in Madhya Pradesh. Out of these three states, Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer of copper in India. According to the Ministry of Mines, India exported refined copper in 2011, which was initially done excursively by the mines owned by the Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL). At present, there are three more manufacturers in the field of copper products such as Sterile Industries Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd and Jhagadia Copper Ltd. However, the dominant industry is the HCL which has a wide range of production capability in mining, smelting, beneficiation, refining and continuous rod manufacturing.

Thus, option (C) is correct.

Note:
Just $2\% $ of the world’s production is mining production, but the production of refined copper is about $4\% $ of the world’s production. The global ranking of India is 4th in smelter production and 7th in refined copper consumption.