Chhattisgarh is quite rich in mineral resources. There are found huge reserves of coal in the northern upland, limestone (cement grade) in the central plain and around Jagdalpur and iron ore in the southern upland. The coalfields or Surguja, Koriya, Korba and Raigarh districts contain Coal reserves to the extent of 54,912 million tons. The total estimated reserve of Limestone in the state is 8,959 million tons. The Iron Ore deposits occur in the Dalli-Rajhara hills of Durg district, and Raoghat and Bailadila hills of Bastar region. After exploitation of a large quantity, the existing reserves of iron ore amount to 4031 million tons in the state. While the iron ore of Dalli-Rajhara mines is being used in the Bhilai Steel Plant, a large quantity of the Bailadiala reserves has been exploited for export to Japan. The Raoghat reserves are waiting for development. Other important minerals of the region are dolomite, bauxite, fireclay, tin, alexandrite, garnet, corundum, diamond, etc. Chhattisgarh earns about 27 percent revenue from extraction of mineral. It cost 19566.01 crore in 2014-15. Coal and iron ore are the major source of it. These mineral resources form the basis of location of a number of industries in the state. The location of six thermal power plants at Korba with installed capacity of 200, 240, 500, 840, 1000 and 21000 MW is the Impact of these reserves. Availability of cheap electricity has caused establishment of a big aluminium factory (BALCO) at Korba. Availability of cement grade limestone extensively and in large quantity has caused establishment of a number of cement factories in the State.
Ratre et al. (Wed,) studied this question.