Explanation: Iron ore is the basic mineral and the backbone of industrial development. India is endowed with abundant resources of iron ore. India is rich in good quality iron ores.

• Magnetite is the finest iron ore with a high iron content up to 70 per cent. It has excellent magnetic qualities, especially valuable in the electrical industry.
• Hematite ore is the most important industrial iron ore in terms of the quantity used but has slightly lower iron content than magnetite (50-60 per cent).
• Ballari-Chitradurga-Chikkamagaluru-Tumakuru belt in Karnataka has large reserves of iron ore. The Kudremukh mines located in the Western Ghats of Karnataka are a 100 per cent export unit.
• Kudremukh deposits are known to be one of the largest in the world. The ore is transported as slurry through a pipeline to a port near Mangaluru.

Source: NCERT