A study on the economics of zircon mining along the coast of tamilnadu and on econometric modeling of the market of zircon

Abstract

India, being the second largest populated but a developing country of newlinethe world faces multifarious problems such as poverty, unemployment, low newlineper capita income, scarcity of capital, and other political and social problems newlinehampering its development process. The natural resources including the newlinemineral resources play a vital role as raw materials for almost every industry newlinein transforming the Indian Economy. The abnormal increase in population newlineand the resultant increase in the consumption of commodities warrant a newlinehigher level of mineral production for India in particular and the world in newlinegeneral. The economic development in the modern period is highly newlinedependent on the strategic zircon minerals and it is stated by Elangovan newline(2007) that there is modern technology in zircon mineral.India is richly endowed with heavy minerals along its coastline from newlineRatnagiri coast on the west to the Orissa coast on the east. It has a major newlineshare in the total world placer reserves for some of the strategic minerals. Inthe case of zircon, the Indian reserves distributed in the beaches form 29.16 newlineper cent of the total world reserves However, the Indian production of newlinezircon is not commensurate with the reserves especially against the backdrop newlineof the unemployment caused by recent recessionary trends. The newlineunderutilization of this natural resource would also hamper the industrial newlinedevelopment of the coastal rural India. To increase the level of Zircon newlinemining activity requires economic viability study. Also forecasting studies newlineon the zircon market will provide the necessary information for the industrial newlinecommunity. The present research aims at these issues.