Which of the following pairs are NOT correctly matched? (Mineral) – (Mining City) 1) Copper – Chitradurga 2) Iron ore – Bellary 3) Manganese – Bhilwara 4) Bauxite – Katni Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

The correct answer is C (1 and 3). Pairs 2 and 4 are correct, while 1 and 3 are mismatched.

• Statement 1 (Copper – Chitradurga) is wrong. Chitradurga is not a recognised copper belt. India's major copper mining areas are Khetri (Rajasthan), Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Malanjkhand (Balaghat, MP) and Balaghat-Hassan-type minor deposits in Karnataka, so the pairing does not hold.
• Statement 2 (Iron ore – Bellary) is correct. The Bellary-Hospet belt in Karnataka is among India's richest hematite zones and feeds the steel industry.
• Statement 3 (Manganese – Bhilwara) is wrong. Bhilwara is not a manganese centre. Major manganese producing districts are Balaghat, Nagpur and Bhandara (Maharashtra and MP), Sandur-Bellary (Karnataka), and Keonjhar and Sundargarh (Odisha).
• Statement 4 (Bauxite – Katni) is correct. The Katni-Jabalpur belt of the Kymore plateau is a known bauxite zone in MP.

The core concept is the regional distribution of minerals and mineral-based industries, which links to the Geography syllabus and to Mains questions on resource-based industrialisation and the National Mineral Policy. Note that the MMDR Act regime and auction-based mineral allocation have changed since 2020, but the geological distribution in this question is unaffected.

Trap: Aspirants often assume that a state known for a mineral is home to every mineral in that state, or that Rajasthan means manganese.