308 
MANGAlrtlSE DEPOSITS OF INDIA : GEOLOGY. 
[Paut li : 
this province in which this series is located is occupied by a continuoua 
The Nagpur-BaUghat stretch of Archaean rocks, beginning in the Chhind- 
wara district in the extreme western part of the 
area, and extending thence in an easterly direction through the 
northern part of the Nagpur district and the southern part of 
the Seoni district. Thence the outcrop of this Archaean complex 
stretches to the east into the northern part of Bhandara and the western 
part of Balaghat. It also extends to the north into the Mandla district 
and to the south and south-east into the southern parts of Bhandara 
and Balaghat and into the Drug and Raipur districts ; but in these areas 
manganese-ores have not yet been located except for a doubtful occur- 
rence in the extreme south of Balaghat. 
It is in the belt of Archaean rocks stretching from Chhindwara through 
Nagpur and Bhandara to Balaghat, that aU the economicaUy valuable 
manganese-ore deposits of the Central Pro^^nces are situated. This 
manganiferous zone can be most conveniently designated the Ndgpur- 
Bdldghdt area. 
The total length of this manganiferous zone is about 72 miles from the 
Kachi Dhana deposit in the Chhindwara district on the extreme west to 
Jairasi in the Balaghat district on the extreme east. It is only as far as 
Ukua in the Balaghat district, however, that the metamorphism is 
known to have been sufficiently severe to bring about the development 
of spessartite. In fact very Uttle is known about the occurrences to the 
east of this point. The strike of this manganese belt averages east- north- 
east. Its maximimi width is 15 miles, this being at the western end ; 
whilst to the east of this point the width averages about 8 miles. This, 
however, is not, in all probability, the full \\idth ; for if the extreme 
northern parts of the Nagpur district, namely the forests lying to the 
north of Chorbaoli, and the adjoining southern parts of Seoni district, 
were properly prospected there is little doubt that further occurrences 
of the gondite series would be found^. 
The Origin of the Gondite Series. 
With regard to the origin of the rocks of the gondite series, of which an 
accomit has already been given (pages 289 to 293), it is intended to give 
now an accoimt of their relationships to the accompanying rocks to show 
that the theory there put forward is in all probability the correct one. In 
the first pubhshed account of the manganese -silicate -rocks of the Central 
1 Since this waa wiitten Mr. T. B. Kantharia has found manganese-ores at Kor&i 
Gh4t. This place is about 26 miles N. N. E. of ChorbAoli and in the Seoni district. 
