Illegal ilmenite mining: GSMB calls for police action

By Ifham Nizam

The Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB( has requested the police to take legal action against two persons involved in illegal mining of ilmenite in the Pulmoddai Grama Sevaka Division under the Kuchchaveli Pradeshiya Sabha in the Trincomalee District. GSMB Chairman R Sanjeepan told The Island that the Bureau’s Legal Division had been working with the police to nab the group involved in illegal mining.

This issue came to light during a joint raid carried out by the Trincomalee Regional Office of the GSMB and the local police; they found two excavators. “We asked the police to take immediate action when we found illegal mining was on,” the Chairman said, adding that according to the Regional Office of GSMB, some 36,000 MT of ore sand had been illegally extracted during the past few years, about 10 km away from an excavation site approved by the GSMB.