Vancouver-based Ceylon Graphite Corp. announced the renewal of the Industrial Mining Licence for the Malsiripura, M1 mining project in Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon until 1972) from the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB). The Licence grants exclusive rights to mine graphite from within the M1 mining area.

With the M1 permit in hand, the company expects to be hoisting graphite after the shaft has been deepened by twenty feet and crosscut to a parallel vein system. The K1 mining project is fully permitted, and the company is in the process of deepening the shaft and has doubled capacity for hoisting graphite.

Although during the 2010s Sri Lanka has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, it has tumbled into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with spiraling inflation, and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

According to CNBC:

• Inflation in Sri Lanka will peak at about 70% over the next two months before it starts to moderate in September this year, according to the governor of the Sri Lankan central bank.

• Food inflation in June climbed to 80.1% compared to a year ago.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned and fled the country; new president Ranil Wickremesinghe is still faced with protests and economic turmoil.

Ceylon said that its operations were not adversely affected, and the company only experienced a few delays in obtaining the final details of certain permits, but the Company is now able to expedite activities at both mines.

The M1 and K1 licences demonstrate our ability to meet, or surpass, the requirements set out by the GSMB as well as the social licence we have developed in Sri Lanka. With the closing of our recent financing and the permitting of both the K1 and M1 mining projects, we are now in position to expedite our goal of achieving free cash flows from hoisting our high-grade, direct shipping, vein graphite from both projects within the next few months.

—Don Baxter, President, and CEO

K1 is Ceylon Graphite’s first exploration project and operates under the Sarcon Development legal umbrella. M1 is an active exploration site in Malsiripura (near Kurunegella) and is operated under Ceylon Graphite’s subsidiary JADS Enterprises.

From the K1 site.

Graphite mined in Sri Lanka is known to be some of the highest grade in the world and has been confirmed to be suitable to be easily upgradable for a range of applications including the high-growth electric vehicle and battery storage markets as well as construction, healthcare and paints and coatings sectors.

The Government of Sri Lanka granted the company’s wholly owned subsidiary Sarcon Development (Pvt) Ltd. an IML Category A licence for its K1 and M1 mines and exploration rights in a land package of more than 120km². These exploration grids (each one square kilometer in area) cover areas of historic graphite production from the early twentieth century and represent a majority of the known graphite occurrences in Sri Lanka.