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.
Recent political unrest in Sri Lanka earlier this summer has subsided with the appointment of a new President. Ceylon’s 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” said Don Baxter, President, and Chief Executive Officer. “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.”
QUALIFIED PERSON
Donald K. D. Baxter, P.Eng., CEO of Ceylon Graphite Corp., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (“N.I. 43-101”) guidelines and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Ceylon Graphite is a public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, which is in the business of mining for graphite, and developing and commercializing innovative graphene and graphite applications and products. 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 has 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 over 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.