Suppose we, are look around our home, We will find walls made of bricks or just joined with cement and sand. Ours home may be whitewashed with white lime. Ours floors may be paved with stones. Pilfers and rafters, ratters may be made of granite and marble stones. Most of these materials are actually minerals and mines, that we get from the Earth-mud, sand, lime, stones or granite. If we go around your home we will find many objects made of metals like iron, copper, lead, Chrome, aluminium etc. We may be wearing ornaments made of silver or gold. These are metals which have been separated or extracted from natural ores, which are also minerals. We use fuels like petrol, diesel, kerosene, these too are extracted from mineral oils called crude petroleum. Other forms of fuels like coal and gas too are forms of minerals. In fact, the groundwater which we get from Wells or bote-wells is also a mineral. In other words, almost anything which we obtain naturally from under the earth is a mineral.
We know about the uses of a few minerals like iron, sand, petroleum, limestone, coal etc. In modern industry, We use many types of minerals. Hence, these minerals have become very useful in our lives.
Most of the mining practices result in disturbing the surface area. It means cutting down forests, destroying fields and habitations, developing large pits or mounds. Mines also need large amounts of water to wash the minerals and Mines. This results in polluting the close by rivers and water sources. This usually means that older use of the land cannot be continued and farmers or tribal people have to leave the land Even people who live close by, face problems created by mining. At the same time, mining employs a many number of people who come to live-in nearby areas and build new townships. The work of mines is also very hazardous, as they are constantly exposed to accidents apart from in healing toxic substances which cause long term health issues.
Minerals usually occur deep in the Earth, They in fact do not belong to any particular owner but belong to all the people of the country and have to be used in everyone's interest. That is why all the mineral wealth of a state is considered the property of the authorities. The authorities use the minerals keeping in mind the interests of all the people of the country. At the time of Independence, mines were mostly owned and operated by private owners and companies. They were liked only in extracting as much profit as possible in short time and did not care for the proper development of the mines or about the safety of the workers. the authorities took over all the mines It owned and operated most of the mines and sold the minerals to different factories or traders or minerals to various factories or traders or exported them. In this way it was able to control the extent of mining, So that there is no over exploitation or use of methods which were toxic or harmful to people, specifically the workers.
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