ASSAM – MINERAL AND POWER RESOURCES
Assam is fairly rich in mineral resources apart from petroleum, coal and
limestone which have been regularly extracted since long. The region also has
a number of other valuable minerals.
IRON ORE
1. Foothills of Tirap and Nagaland, Jaipur area Upper Assam Belt
2. Near Dhubri district along the hills of Bilashipara specially in
Chanderdinga hills and Melajgarh near Abarapuri Bongaigaon district
3. Near Hahim in Kamrup
4. Malanga area if Goalpara
It has however been found that iron contains in the ore of Assam is generally
low, being less than 50%. Hence, no entrepreneur comes forward to set up a
steel plant. Solution for this problem are-
cokingcoal Coal from - Namchik – Namphuk of AP
Import- manganese and cocking
COPPER
1. Small proportion in the Mahamaya hills, Dhubri district
2. Barjneel river in Karbi Anglong
GOLD
1. Presence of gold has been found near Haflong of North Cachar Hills. In
earlier times alluvial golds were extracted from Subansiri, Dibang,
Dikrong etc
COAL
Assam has large reserves of coals, the quality is not very good in that where
organic sulfur content is high and carbon content is relatively low.
The coal reserves found in Assam belong to both Gondwana and tertiary ages.
But Gondwana coal is present in disjointed order among the Himalayan
foothills from Bhutan to Sadiya. This has not been so far exploited. It is only the
tertiary coal that is being mined for extraction in several places like Karbi
Anglong, Ledo, Jaipur, Naginimara area of Assam, Makum Margherita.
oil production- 1. RAJASTHAN 2. GUJARAT 3. ASSAM
PETROLEUM
Assam is rich in Petroleum deposits. In fact until the middle of 1960s Assam
was the only state in India producing some amount of oil. The presence of oil in
the forest and field of Upper Assam was detected as back as in 1822.
Subsequently on the advice of Mr. H.B.Medlicott, an oil well was mechanically
drilled in 1867 near Namdang river between Margherita and Jaipur. Oil could be
stucked there just at the depth of only 37m. Meanwhile Assam railway and
trading company started laying railway track between Margherita and Makum
mainly to transport coal from Ledo-Margherita region and it was in the course
of digging works that the company engineers detected many oil seepages in
Digboi in the year 1889.
A new company under the name of Assam Oil Company was established in
1899. And a refinery was set up at Namdang near Margherita. The Burma Oil
Company took over the AOC in 1920 as a subsidiary and a former set up a new
large refinery at Digboi in 1921. Up till 1920 the average annual production of oil
was less than 20,000 tons annually. After the take over of AOC by BOC
production started to increase and it increased to as much as 2 lakhs 50
thousand tons of oil by 1953. It increased to 600 million liters annually.
The Oil India Limited established in 1958 subsequently developed all these
fields. Apart from OIL, ONGC in 1959 also started exploring oil and natural gas
in areas like Tengakhat, Moram, Rudrasagar, Lakua, Amguri etc.
The geological investigations from Upper Assam through Barak Valley, Tripura
to Assam Arakan valley has immense hydrocarbon potential.
NATURAL GAS natural gas production- 1. ASSAM 2. GUJARAT 3. RAJASTHAN
Like petroleum, natural gas is a variable source of power and various other
chemical by products. In North East, natural gas is mostly found in Assam and
Tripura. OIL and Assam Gas Agency had discovered oil and gas field near AP in
Dibrugarh district. BCPL has now taken a major role.
LIMESTONE
It is an important mineral which is used in manufacturing of cement also in iron
and steel production. In Assam, limestone occurs in number of areas in Karbi
Plateau like Dilai hills, Koilajan, Sainilanchu also Silbheta area of Karbi Anglong
and in the areas of Umrangchu and Garampani of North Cachar Hills. The
limestone deposit of Dilai Hills made a basis for Bokajan cement factory in
Assam.
GYPSUM
plaster of paris (calcium sulfate hemihydrate)
It is used in the manufacturing of pluster of peris and cement. In Assam it is
found in Dimasa reserved forest of Karbi Hills, near Badarpur of Cachar district
and near Haflong.
MICA
In North East India, mica is found mainly in the rocks of Meghalaya and Karbi
Plateau. White mica is available in Holamara hills of Goalpara district adjoining
the Meghalaya Plateau.
SULFAR sulphur
Not found in Assam independently but found only in places where tertiary coal is
present, areas like Ledo, Makum, Margherita etc.
QUARTZ AND FELDSPAR
Commonly used in glass and ceramic industry. It is mainly found in Hahim in
Kamrup and Silbheta in Karbi Anglong and Pancharatna of Goalpara.
POWER RESOURCES OF ASSAM
Power is one of the most important infrastructural elements for economic
development of a region. The traditional sources of power are coal, petroleum,
natural gas and running water are the form in which modern civilization
receives power in electricity. Assam has almost all the sources but
development of the power in the region is one of the lowest. The coal that is
present here contains a high proportion of sulfar, phosphorous and other
impurities and without their removal local coal is not directly suitable for
electricity production. There is abundant natural gas in the region. It is slowly
being used to produce thermal electricity. The dearth of huge capital, technical
knowhow needed have so far hindered power generation from natural gas in
Assam.
So far hydroelectricity is concerned in the regions which are rich in water
resources. But the huge initial capital needed to construct dams and barrages
are some of the stumbling box in generating hydroelectricity besides seismic
sensitiveness of the reason also discourages construction of large dams here.
The region is however extremely rich in hydroelectric power potentials. The
total potential of the region accounts for about 30% of that of the whole of the
country (more than 40,000MW). The river Brahmaputra, Barak, Manipur,
Kaladan and their numerous tributaries receives enormous quantity of water
from rainfall and melting snow. Besides large tributary like Subansiri,
Ranganadi, Dikuong Jia Bharali, Pagladia, Manas, Iladhansiri in North Bank and
Na-dihing, Burhi dihing, Disang Dikhow, Dhansiri, Kapili, Digaru, Kulsi, Kishnai
in the Southern Bank have large potential to generate electricity. The Barak
along with its tributary also have the same potential along with similar physical
setting. A few examples or few important examples of Hydropower projects in
Assam are – Kapli hydral Power Project at Umrangchu at North Cachar Hills
and Karbi Langpi Hydral Power Project at Amtereng in Karbi Anglong district.
Some example of thermal power projects are –
1. Namrup Thermal Power Project at Dibrugarh
2. Chandrapur Thermal Power Project at Guwahati
3. Lakua Thermal Power Station at Maibela In Sivsagar
4. Bongaigaon Thermal Power Project at Salekati
5. Borgolai Thermal Power Project at Margherita
6. Kethalguri Thermal Power Project near Duliajan Oil Town. This project
was established with the aid of overseas economic fund and Japanese
collaboration
7. Galeki Thermal Power Project of Sivasagar District
8. Amguri Thermal Power Project of Sivasagar
In Barak Vally also two gas based thermal power project are producing power.
One at Adamtila (Karimganj district) and other at Baskandi at Cachar district.
Another project is going to be set up at Chirukandi near Silchar (Project is
taken by ONGC).
The necessity of setting up of power generating units based on non
conventional sources of energy has often being felt throughout the country in
view of limited resources of conventional energy sources of coal and oil and
very high cost of establishment of hydroelectric stations. Assam is trying to
utilize gobor gas, wind and solar energy to generate electricity especially in the
less accessible hilly areas. Efforts have been also made to harness wind energy
to produce power. The GOA along with metrological dept of India is
investigating wind velocity in various parts of the state for finding out suitable
locations to install aero-generators. Efforts are also on the way to convert solar
energy to heat energy and to generate from solar energy especially for those
places like the remote villages of North Cachar Hills district and Majuli.
Assam Oilfields: • Oldest oil producing state in India.
• The Digboi field in tinisukia district is the oldest oil field of India.
• The Naharkatiya field and The Moran-Hugrijan field are also important.
• The main oil bearing strata extend for a distance of 320 km in upper Assam along
the Brahmaputra valley.
• Oilfields of Assam are relatively inaccessible and are distantly located from the
main consuming areas.
• Oil from Assam is therefore, refined mostly in the refineries located at Noonamati
in Assam (443 km), Digboi, Guwahati, Bongaigaon, Barauni in Bihar (724 km) and
Numaligarh.
