*Assistant Professor of Economics,
**Professor of Economics and Registrar,
India is endowed with large resources of heavy minerals which occur mainly along coastal stretches of the country and also in inland placers. Ilmenite is the major constituent of these heavy-mineral deposits. Other associated minerals are rutile, zircon, monazite, leucoxene, garnet, sillimanite, etc. Ilmenite and rutile along with other heavy minerals from ingredients of beach sand deposits are found right from Ratnagiri coast in the west to Orissa coast in the east (Indian Bureau of Mines, 2008).
Angusamy et al. (1992) have estimated 0.49 million tonnes of zircon, 6.13 million tonnes of garnet, 6.01 million tonnes of ilmenite, 0.10 million tonnes of magnetite and 0.84 million tonnes of monazite in the coast between Mandapam and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
Rajamanickam et al. (1983) have analysed that the ilmenite off the Konkan Coast contains 55 per cent TiO2 and the associated magnetites have a maximum of 55 per cent Fe2O3 and 25 per cent TiO2. It is concluded that the ilmenite rich sands are paleo-placers, because the mineral concentrate and the nature of the coastal rocks do not match well. The ilmenite reserves in the surveyed area are inferred to be about 21 million tonnes.
Ilmenite is found to be dominant in the sands of the study region along with the economic minerals like garnet and zircon in the finer fractions. The ilmenite concentrates are found to vary from 8.65 per cent in the southern sector, 7.41 per cent in the central sector and 1.61 per cent in the northern sector. In India the production of ilmenite at 678,772 tonnes in 2007-08 decreases by two per cent as compared to that in the preceding year. Tamil Nadu was the leading producer of ilmenite during the year contributing 46 per cent of the total production followed by Orissa 30 per cent and Kerela 24 per cent.
The present research aims at finding out an economic analysis of ilmenite minerals in India.
