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Sri Lanka
Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera visited the Pulmudai Lanka Mineral sands Factory recently (27).
The country’s foreign exchange earnings are minimal due to the export of high value minerals such as Ilmenite, Rutile and zircon to foreign countries. Therefore, the Ceylon Mineral Sands Company has taken steps to introduce a new methodology for the sale of Ceylon Mineral Sands, officials of the company told the Minister.
Accordingly, the highest selling price in history was a ton of Rutile at US $ 1733 and a ton of Ilmenite at US $ 251 and a ton of high tie ilmenite. They also said they would sell it for as little as US $ 250. Agreements have been signed to give the royalty more than 07 percent of each tonnes. Due to this, the new system has been set up in such a way that the government can earn a large amount of revenue, the officials said.
But as value-added products, it has the potential to generate huge revenue by exporting these minerals to foreign markets. Despite instructions from the government to take immediate action to implement the value-added manufacturing program, the Ceylon Minerals Company has so far taken no actions.
Therefore, the Minister of Environment Mahinda Amaraweera instructed the authorities of the company to take steps to develop Ceylon Minerel Sands as value added products in the future. Tons. Is about a point. Among them is Ilmanite. 90,000 tons, Rutile Tons. 9000 and zircon m. 5,500 tons are exported as raw materials.
The Minister further expressed his views here
Our country has a large number of valuable mineral resources. However, the institutions that are supposed to utilize those mineral resources for the development of the country have not become efficient. As a result, the country has lost a large amount of its available revenue. The whole world today is engaged in the export of minerals not as raw materials but as value added products. But the responsible government agencies in our country are still only exporting these valuable minerals as raw materials for a very small amount of money.
The goal of the government is to export all our exports not as raw materials but as value added products. Ceylon Mineral Sands Company has not taken action yet. I think that’s a big shortcoming. Today our country has a huge foreign exchange deficit. The only option is to streamline and accelerate our exports to earn more dollars. We must also move towards value-added production to earn more foreign exchange than to export mineral resources as raw materials.
The Ceylon Petroleum Company must be prepared to accept that challenge. The Minister also stated that a state institution should not become a time consuming institution at that time.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 – 10:22