Bogala Graphite Mines Sri Lanka

    The bogala graphite mines are located in arukgammana village , 5Kms on the  avissavella kotiyakumbura road via arukgammana in galigamuwa.

Bogala Graphite Mine

    The availability of graphite as a mining  deposit  in our country had been first discovered  during  the Dutch period  and has been referred to as (black lead) in the writing  of the 17 th century. As a mining industry  it was developed  during  the British  period. The areas  where the graphite  deposits were located  have been named as maha bogala, punchi bogala and karandawatte mines .The mining complex which was started as a private enterprise  in 1920, came to be known as the bogala mines in 1947. In the same year the bogala graphite company  was formed. This company  was nationalized  in 1971 and was  named the state graphite corporation  and functioned  under a competent  authority  from that year on  wards.In 1979 the  state mining and minerals development  authority was vested with the power to conduct the mining of graphite . This concern was renamed bogala graphite (lanka) limited 1991. 

Graphite Mining

High Percentage of Carbon Ranging

    The deposit of graphite  contains  a high percentage of carbon ranging between 90- 99 per cent.The graphite found in sri lanka sur passes the deposits found  in Madagascar  with regard to its  purity. The deposit  found is  set to cover a distance of 1000 feet to a width of 500 feet and to a depth of 2500 feet.At present over 400 employees  are engaged  6 days of the week working in 6 hour shifts . A visit to the underground  graphite mine is most interesting  and provides  an insight into this hazardous  activity  of the mining  of graphite . About 5000 tons are mined annually. Different  varieties  such as plate,chip dust ,bold chip,fine chip,micron , etc are found in these mines. Graphite is exported to countries  such as UK , japan ,France  and Germany.

Graphite useful in electronic products such as batteries, and solar panels