This document summarizes a journal article about minerals and their importance. It discusses how minerals take millions of years to form and are non-renewable resources. It also discusses how mining impacts the environment through loss of land and forests, water pollution, waste generation, dust emissions, and health impacts on workers. Many major mining districts in India are ecologically devastated and among the poorest in their respective states despite producing most of the country's minerals. Mining displaces many people, including tribal communities, though few are properly resettled.