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Q79 (IAS/2025) Geography › World Human & Economic Geography › World mineral resources Answer Verified

Consider the following pairs : Country Resource-rich in I. Botswana : Diamond II. Chile : Lithium III. Indonesia : Nickel In how many of the above rows is the given information correctly matched?

Result
Your answer:  ·  Correct: C
Explanation

The correct answer is option C because all three pairs are correctly matched.

**I. Botswana : Diamond** - This is correct. Botswana is indeed one of the world's largest producers of diamonds and the resource forms a significant part of its economy.

**II. Chile : Lithium** - This is correct. Chile holds the largest lithium reserves in the world at 9.3 million metric tons.[1] Chile anchors the strategically significant Lithium Triangle, a region comprising Chile, Argentina, and the Plurinational State of Bolivia.[2]

**III. Indonesia : Nickel** - This is correct. Indonesia holds around 43 percent of the world's nickel reserves and is the largest producer globally.[3] Indonesia is the world's largest producer of nickel – essential for stainless steel and battery production.[4]

Since all three pairs are accurately matched, the answer is "All the three."

Sources
  1. [2] https://stat.unido.org/portal/storage/file/publications/yb/2025/UNIDO_IndustrialStatistics_Yearbook_2025.pdf
  2. [3] https://www.orfonline.org/public/uploads/upload/20251124085934.pdf
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Q. Consider the following pairs : Country Resource-rich in I. Botswana : Diamond II. Chile : Lithium III. Indonesia : Nickel In how ma…
At a glance
Origin: Mostly Current Affairs Fairness: Low / Borderline fairness Books / CA: 0/10 · 6.7/10
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This question signals a shift from 'Old Economy' minerals (Iron, Coal) to 'New Economy/Critical' minerals (Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt). While NCERTs cover the broad geology (African Shield, Andes), the specific country-mineral dominance here is driven by the EV/Battery supply chain narrative in current affairs.

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
Country mineral resources: Is Botswana a major global producer of diamonds?
Origin: Weak / unclear Fairness: Borderline / guessy
Indirect textbook clues
FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 7: Transport and Communication > Railways RailwaysRailways > p. 58
Strength: 5/5
“Africa continent, despite being the second largest, has only 40,000 km of railways with South Africa alone accounting for 18,000 km due to the concentration of gold, diamond and copper mining activities. The important routes of the continent are: (i) the Benguela Railway through Angola to Katanga-Zambia Copper Belt; (ii) the Tanzania Railway from the Zambian Copper Belt to Dar-es-Salaam on the coast; (iii) the Railway through Botswana and Zimbabwe linking the landlocked states to the South African network; and (iv) the Blue Train from Cape Town to Pretoria in the Republic of South Africa. Elsewhere, as in Algeria, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia, railway lines connect port cities to interior centres but do not form a good network with other countries.”
Why relevant

Notes a railway through Botswana linking landlocked states to South Africa in a passage that links rail development to concentration of gold, diamond and copper mining activities in southern Africa.

How to extend

A student could combine this with a map showing Botswana in southern Africa and investigate whether Botswana shares the region's diamond-mining profile and transport links to export centers.

Certificate Physical and Human Geography , GC Leong (Oxford University press 3rd ed.) > Chapter 2: The Earth's Crust > Types of Plateau > p. 24
Strength: 4/5
“masses termed mesas and buttes, intersected by deep canyons. This is a common feature of arid and semiarid areas, e.g. in the south-western U.S.A. (Plate 7.D, page 71). Many of the world's plateaux have rich mineral resources and have been actively mined. The African Plateau yields gold, diamonds, copper, manganese and chromium. In the Brazilian Plateau, there are huge resources of iron and manganese, particularly in the Minas Gerais area. The Deccan Plateau has deposits of manganese, coal and iron and the plateau of Western Australia is rich in gold and iron.”
Why relevant

States that the African Plateau yields gold, diamonds, copper, manganese and chromium — identifying Africa (and its plateaux) as a region with diamond resources.

How to extend

One could locate Botswana relative to the African Plateau and then check country-level production statistics for diamonds to see if Botswana is a major producer.

India and the Contemporary World – II. History-Class X . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 3: The Making of a Global World > Project > p. 78
Strength: 3/5
“Find out more about gold and diamond mining in South Africa in the nineteenth century. Who controlled the gold and diamond companies? Who were the miners and what were their lives like?”
Why relevant

Discusses gold and diamond mining in South Africa historically, showing southern Africa as a historically important diamond-producing area.

How to extend

A student could infer that neighboring countries (including Botswana) might also be significant producers and then look up contemporary production or company presence in Botswana.

Physical Geography by PMF IAS, Manjunath Thamminidi, PMF IAS (1st ed.) > Chapter 30: Climatic Regions > Mineral resources > p. 429
Strength: 2/5
“• Gold, copper, diamonds and oil are important resources that are found in rainforests around the world. Extracting these natural resources is a destructive activity that damages the rainforest ecosystem (resource curse). Examples are: • gold mining in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon,• rare earth mining in the Congo (cobalt mining in recent times Congo's rich red earth has the world's largest known deposit of cobalt, a key metal in the lithium-ion batteries),• gold and copper mining in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and• Oil and gas development in Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru ― some of the world's most promising oil and gas deposits lie deep in tropical rainforests.”
Why relevant

Lists diamonds among important resources found in certain global environments (rainforests), illustrating that diamonds occur in varied geographies and mining is globally distributed.

How to extend

Use this general pattern to recognize that diamond deposits are not limited to one country; combine with a world map and regional mining data to judge Botswana's place among producers.

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