Financial Times

Call for investors to exploit Pulmoddai mineral sands
The Public Enterprises Reform Commission has called for proposals from investors to exploit the rich minerals sands deposit operated by Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd in Pulmoddai and to manufacture and export value added mineral sands based products.

Lanka Mineral Sands officials said they envisage prospective investors would process ilmenite to make synthetic rutile, titanium slag and titanium dioxide pigment. “We will short list the proposals and then negotiate with them on what sort of products to make,” a company official said.

Lanka Minerals Sands operates one of the richest mineral deposits in the world with a very low cost of production. The minerals are derived from sands on the sea shore and, unlike other countries that have to mine heavily to excavate mineral deposits, the company only has to separate minerals from the sea sand.

The deposits are estimated to contain about 4,000,000 tonnes of mineral sands with an average composition of 70 percent Ilmenite, 10 percent Zircon and eight percent Rutile. Ilmenite and Rutile are used to produce titanium dioxide and in the manufacture titanium metal while Zircon is used in the ceramic industry as a refractory in the manufacture of moldings.

The Pulmoddai beach deposit is replenished annually during the north-east monsoon and the reserve is estimated to last for over 25 years at an annual mining rate of 150,000 tonnes.

However, bulk shipments from Pulmoddai on the northeast coast were brought to a halt in 1998 after the Tamil Tigers sank a foreign merchant ship loaded with Ilmenite sand. The attack also subsequently led to a halt in mining after the firm’s godowns filled up.

Since then, Lanka Mineral Sands was confined to selling its existing stockpiles, with Zircon and Rutile being bagged and transported to Colombo and exported. It recently began transporting Ilmenite from Pulmoddai to Trincomalee. This is with the aim of shipping from Trincomalee and emptying the firm’s godowns at Pulmoddai so that mining can be resumed.

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