The Dodangaslanda Properties are located in North-Western Province of Sri Lanka at Maduragoda, Dodangaslanda in the Kurunegala District, approximately 90 km. from the capital city of Colombo. The properties are on private land in the heart of the vein graphite district, containing historical workings and vein graphite outcrops. Graphite has been known in the Dodangaslanda area for over a century with stories of old underground workings on the property in the first half of the 1900’s. No records of any production are known to AGT. Since the graphite industry was nationalized in 1971, and the state graphite corporation was established in 1971 under the state industrial corporation Act No.49 of 1957, Sri Lanka has few graphite mines left. The Corporation took over the running of three large mines previously operated by the private sector Bogala, Kahatagaha and Kolongaha, which formed the backbone of the industry.
Kahatagaha-Kolongaha is the world biggest crystalline vein graphite mine which contains above 95% pure carbon. Geologists believe that deposits contain vein graphite to a depth of 2050ft from surface. There is both indirect and circumstantial evidence of the existence of the potential within the Dodangaslanda properties. The indirect evidence is in the form of scattered shallow pits within the topsoil, the laterite and the adits. There is an apparent continuity of strike suggesting that there is a lateral extension of veins. The circumstantial evidence of local history of each of the mined areas, which indicates there has been varying degrees of shallow mining within the selected areas. The area has not been subject to any modern exploration work prior to the acquisition of the Queen’s mine by RS Mines (pvt) Ltd in 2014.
The Queens mine originally opened in the early 1900s by the British, however when the British colonial period ended in 1948 the mine was abandoned. The mountain in which the Queen’s Mine is situated in is also referred to as ‘the graphite mountain’. Graphite veins run in an East-West direction and the lower in depths the thicker the graphite vein becomes. Veins can measure many meters in thickness and ‘pockets’ of graphite can be as large as detached houses – the miners call these pockets ‘Mine-rang-Aliya’ which means ‘Graphite Elephant’. The mine was recently operated by RS Queens Mine, and significant geophysics and drilling was undertaken to guide the underground mine development. RS reported graphite extraction from developed stopes
A VTEM survey over the broader area, undertaken by Bora Bora Resources (Australian) in 2014 highlights a strong conductivity anomalous response over the Queens Mine, comparable with similar response over the State-owned Kahataga Mine in the Mid-Region. This Response at Queens Mine is co-incident with the presence of a series of exposed graphite veins at surface.
Adits which provide access to the historic workings expose at least six graphite veins over a total width of 25 m, veins varying from 1mm to 40 cm (SRK 2014). The host rock is a Quartz-Biotite-Garnet gneiss with a foliation oriented N-S and dipping at 65˚W.
A second vein with the same azimuth, dips at 40-45˚ to the South. This vein has also been excavated. Its south extension has been exploited in a pit situated at about 20 m south of the adit. A second pit (4m x 4m) whose the depth is difficult to assess was observed and recorded at about 110 m North of the Adit. A good graphite mineralization is found on a dump at some distance. The samples taken represent a translucent quartz breccia with graphite cementing the large blocks.
EXPOSED GRAPHITE VEIN ON AGT PROPERTY
Mine concept would be simple horizontal adits to access multiple known surface outcropping.
Design to be optimized with ground-based IP known to be very effective at identifying conductive graphite veins. Conceptual initial graphite extraction intersecting 2 veins averaging 30cm to 60cm, has the following initial proforma rate:
