The production of some key minerals in the country has continued to witness strong growth during the first seven months of FY 2024-25 (April-October), after reaching record production levels in FY 2023-24, with iron ore accounting for as much as 69% of the country's overall mineral production by value. The production of iron ore was 274 million metric tonnes for the full financial year 2023-24.
Production of iron ore has gone up from 152.1 MMT in the first seven months of FY 2023-24 (April-October) to 158.4 MMT in FY 2024-25 (April-October). That indicates a good 4.1 per cent growth.
Production of manganese ore has increased by 11.1 per cent at 2.0 MMT in FY 2024-25 (April -October) from 1.8 MMT of previous year's corresponding period. Production of bauxite has increased by 11.3 per cent to 13.8 MMT in FY 2024-25 (April- October) from 12.4 MMT of FY 2023-24 (April- October).
In the non-ferrous metal industry, primary aluminium production in FY2024-25 (April-October) has risen by 1.2 per cent over the corresponding period last year, and it has gone up to 24.46 lakh ton (LT) in FY2024-25 (April-October) from 24.17 LT in FY2023-24 (April-October). During the same comparative period, refined copper production has increased by 6 per cent from 2.83 LT to 3.00 LT.
India is the second largest aluminium producer, and amongst the top-10 producers of refined copper and the 4th largest iron ore-producing country in the world.
Continued production growth of iron ore in the current financial year reflects robust demand conditions in the steel industry that uses it as an input. In addition to aluminium and copper, these growth trends point towards continued strong economic activity in user sectors such as energy, infrastructure, construction, automotive and machinery.
In fact, India is the only large economy showing robust growth in the consumption of steel with a double-digit jump of 13.5 per cent in the first half of 2024-25, according to latest figures compiled by the Ministry of Steel.
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