Exploring the mineral world

Disna Mudalige

Minerals are recognized as a precious and priceless gift of nature. The reason is that most of them belong to non-renewable sector of the natural resources which take millions of years to evolve. Sri Lanka is considered as a rich ground for mineral varieties. There is a vast range of crystallized materials in the country which are thought to be highly valuable. However there are only a few industries established in the country which pay attention to take the optimum use of these valuable minerals.

Value of utilizing mineral waste

On the other hand, a large amount of mineral based waste products are scattered all over the island. Sometimes the minerals are wasted by not being properly identified. Large quantity of resources are wasted in the gem industry too.

These waste minerals can also be reused for industrial purposes and this is an environmental-friendly approach too.

Consultant Geologist and Ran Ruwan Co (Pvt) Ltd Chairman Ranjith Dias spoke to the Daily News about his experience in the field of mineral based products. He has pioneered a new chapter on the arts and crafts of Sri Lanka by using his scientific knowledge and creativity in the mineral industry over the past 17 years.

Promote mineral based industry

“Mineral resources originate from the combination of reserves and other materials. Mineral reverses are not properly identified in the country because of the lack of awareness of their market, products and the suitable technology to be used.

We need not to worry about the whole mineral deposit when identifying a mineral resource.

Only a portion of it is enough to start an industry and the waste is also less in this manner. If we consider in this way, a large number of mineral based industries can be initiated and sustained very easily,” he explained.

Mineral and rock categories include gem minerals and non-gem minerals such as lime stones, mica, graphite, granite, gravel, sand and clay. Eppawala ilmonite deposit is one of the valuable deposits known to many of us.

Utilizing waste mineral in industry

“What we do is, we give priority to waste minerals in our industry than large-scale deposits and high value products. We generate about one million export income per month. Our investment is a minute amount and we use only in house technologies. This can be taken as a case study on mineral based industries in Sri Lanka.

Our product ranges include lampshades, statues, costume jewelry, paintings, portraits, ornaments and wedding cards. There is high demand for them even from the people who seek an expensive market. We use over 100 waste mineral varieties with 1,500 colour combinations for these products,” Dias mentioned.

For this practical approach they have already secured patent rights and have obtained three awards. They are Presidential Innovative Financial Award (1990), National Science and Technology Award for Value Addition (2006) and Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Product (2007).

Scientific creations of art

Development of technology and arts should go together in a craft industry. “The minerals should be placed in a product correctly and carefully. Such products can be sold at higher prices in the market where as a rough rock has no value. Colours of the minerals are durable and not fading. That is the advantage in using them in lampshades.

Creative mineral products can also be done through chemical sedimentation and we also engage in such scientific work too. By using this method different shades of colours can be obtained in the output,” he observed.

Dias also stressed that the retaining of mineral properties is important and it is useless if the natural qualities of the minerals are being concealed in the output. “Some apply a polish in the outer layer of the product, and as a result the natural properties become covered up.

We do not see any deficit in ancient historical creations even though they do not have a shining outward appearance. We wanted to enhance the natural qualities in them through our products.

Need for technological & legal focus on mineral deposits

An artificial enhancement is not necessary for mineral products. At the same time we were cautious not to use any harmful chemical in the process. We thought to pay a technological and legal focus to mineral deposits in the country for better access,” he pointed out.

The main concept of Ran Ruwan industry is to accept “waste as non-waste”. As believed the minerals found in our country are about 70 million years old. Therefore allowing such valuable material to be wasted is a huge disadvantage to the country. Dias noted that a great deal of creations can be done using only a fraction of minerals. The technology and the products also improve day by day. One advantage of using only one small portion is, that there is always another portion left for future use. These can be utilized later, when the necessary technology develops in the future.

The management of this industry has also paid attention to grant some benefit of this industry for the underprivileged in the country. “In this industry the support of a large group of people including the labourers, is essential. It is teamwork and all follow in one line. Our industry aims to develop the rural economy while we earn a considerable amount of foreign exchange.

Local talent invited to join in

We produce about 60 percent for the local market including 10 percent for architectural market, and 40 percent for tourist market. 90 percent of the products are sold at our airport shops targeting tourists. We want to assimilate different talented people to carry on the work more fruitfully.

Talented craftsmen and mineral suppliers are welcome to get in touch with us. We would like to invite rural talented people to join us in this endeavor. Such people are important to invent and create newer designs for our crafts and to expand our product range,” he added.

He noted that their attempt is to show the world that the mineral resources have to be used in a meaningful way to effect economic benefit for everyone, irrespective of the size and quality of a deposit.