Aluminium

Rationale: Odisha accounts for nearly half (around 51%) of India's total bauxite reserves, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Jharkhand. Hence, option B is correct.

Rationale: Aluminium extraction via the Hall-Héroult electrolytic reduction process consumes enormous amounts of electrical energy, making power availability and tariff primary locational determinants.

Rationale: BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company Limited) has its major operational plant and smelting facilities at Korba in Chhattisgarh.

Rationale: The Bayer process is the principal industrial method for refining bauxite to produce alumina by digesting it with sodium hydroxide.

Rationale: Alumina has a very high melting point (~2050°C). Dissolving it in molten cryolite lowers the melting point to about 950-1000°C and increases bath conductivity.

Rationale: The Indian Aluminium Company (INDAL) established its smelter at Hirakud (Odisha) and Alupuram with early Canadian (Alcan) collaboration.

Rationale: The rich bauxite deposit of Panchpatmali is located in the Koraput district of Odisha and feeds the Damanjodi refinery of NALCO.

Rationale: Tata Steel is primarily a major producer of iron and steel, not primary aluminium. Hindalco, NALCO, and Vedanta are the key primary aluminium producers in India.

Rationale: Hindalco operates a massive integrated aluminium plant at Renukoot in Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, historically tied to power from Rihand Dam.

Rationale: Bauxite is a residual deposit formed by the intense chemical weathering (lateritization) of aluminous rocks under tropical alternate wet and dry climatic conditions.

Rationale: Andhra Pradesh holds the second-largest bauxite reserves in India, particularly concentrated in the Eastern Ghats belt.

Rationale: NALCO operates its bauxite refinery at Damanjodi (Koraput) and its large-scale aluminium smelter and captive power plant at Angul in Odisha.

Rationale: Roughly 4 to 6 metric tonnes of bauxite are required to produce about 2 tonnes of alumina, which in turn yields approximately 1 tonne of primary aluminium metal.

Rationale: Aluminium's high electrical conductivity relative to its weight, combined with ductility and corrosion resistance, makes it ideal for overhead power transmission lines.

Rationale: Because smelting requires massive electrical energy inputs (kilowatt-hours per kg of metal), the cost of transmitting power or locating near energy sources outweighs the pull of raw bauxite freight.

Rationale: Vedanta operates a massive aluminium smelter and power plant complex at Jharsuguda in Odisha.

Rationale: Gujarat has substantial bauxite deposits located mainly along the coastal districts of Jamnagar, Kutch, Junagadh, and Amreli.

Rationale: Charles Martin Hall (USA) and Paul Héroult (France) independently discovered the electrolytic reduction method for producing aluminium in 1886.