The Position of Indian Tin Occurrences in the Tin-Belts of Gondwana

Tin deposits and occurrences show an inhomogeneous distribution in elongate belts on all the continents. When the continents are fitted together in pre-drift position, these belts form a coherent pattern. The delineation of tin-belts in Gondwana is difficult due to the inaccessibility of Antarctica and to the fact that most continents belonging to Gondwana seem to have a relatively deep average level of erosion. This may have caused the removal of pre-existing tin-deposits to a large extent. Still it appears that most of the Indian tin occurrences including the recently discovered tin province of Bastar, M.P., fall on a continuation of the tin-belt in Western Australia. The association of cassiterite with Nb-Ta minerals and with Li-minerals is a characteristic of most of the eastern Indian occurrences as well as of most of the Western Australian deposits.