PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior First Graphite on Thursday announced that it had received an industrial mining licence for its Pandeniya project, in Sri Lanka, from the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau.
MD Craig McGuckin said that this was the first new underground ‘A’ class industrial mining licence issued in the last 25 years, and the first to include a full environmental review.
“To have achieved this is a credit to the quality of work conducted by our group and the dedication of our Sri Lankan staff,” McGuckin said.
With the industrial mining licence in place, First Graphite could start mining at the Pandeniya project, where previous work had been restricted to preparatory work.
McGuckin said that the company would complete the installation of the shaft liner boxes at the mine, and once these were in place, First Graphite would be able to start underground mining operations in April.
The first phase of mining operations would concentrate on the development of drives, with mining and hoisting of high-grade graphite.