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A range of exceptionally rich iron ore in the Bastar forests — among the finest deposits in the world.

Bailadila — “the hump of the ox” — is a ridge of banded iron formation, iron and silica laid down on the floor of an Archean sea when the young Earth’s oceans first took up oxygen. Later enrichment has left ore of unusually high grade.

Its hematite feeds domestic steel and has long been exported, notably to Japan, making the remote Bastar plateau a major node in the global iron trade.

Sources

• Geological Survey of India
• National Mineral Development Corporation

A short reference note: this summary draws on third-party sources such as the Geological Survey of India and Wikipedia. In time I plan to give every geological feature its own learning-oriented write-up — with custom diagrams, graphs, and study pointers — as I’ve already done for the 11 locations that have an Instagram reel.