ISLAND WIDE CONSTRUCTION RAW MATERIAL SURVEY REPORT ON ANURADHAPURA DISTRICT by D.M.S Dissanayake (Geologist) Report No: MR/CRM/11/2018 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY & MINES BUREAU No. 569, Epitamulla Road Pitakotte June 2018 1 CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction 01 2. Objectives 02 3. Area and Boundary 02 4. Location and Accessibility 02 5. Climate & Rainfall 05 6. Physiography and Drainage 05 7. Outline of Geology 06 8. Initial Study 08 9. Field Investigations 08 10. Construction Raw Material Occurrences 08 10.1 Building Materials 09 10.1.1 River Sand 09 10.1.2 Land Based Sand 09 10.1.3 Gravel and Soil Beds 12 10.1.4 Rock 17 11. Conclusion 27 12. Recommendation 29 Acknowledgements 30 References 30 2 ANNEXURES 1. Construction Raw Material Resources Map of Anuradhapura District. 2. The Details of newly identified rock quarries in Anuradhapura District. 3. The Details of newly identified Gravel Occurrences in Anuradhapura District. 4. The Details of newly identified Sand Deposits in Anuradhapura District. 5. The Details of working Rock Quarries, Gravel Pits and Sand deposits in Anuradhapura District. 3 Island wide Construction Raw Material Survey Report on Anuradhapura District 1. Introduction Over the past two decades, state as well as private sector organizations initiated rapid development work throughout the country in a large scale. Of these projects, Port City development project, construction of expressways (i.e. Northern and Central expressways, extension of Southern expressway to Hambantota and Mattala), extension of Southern Railway line from Matara to Kataragama and construction of a massive building complex for the Ministry of Defense and Three Forces Head Quarters in Pelawatta and other government office complexes in Battaramulla, construction of irrigation and hydro power projects in many parts of the country, construction of multi storied apartment complexes in urban and suburban, etc., are the most significant. For these projects, huge quantities of building raw materials (sand, rock and soil / gravel) are required. Being the regulatory authority on Mines and Minerals Act No. 33 of 1992 and amended Act No. 66 of 2009, it is the responsibility of the GSMB to identify mineral resources in the country, including building raw materials, required for various industries and development projects, initiated by the state as well as the private sector. In the recent past, the contractors of various development projects have complained about the difficulties faced by them when identifying suitable localities for extracting and supplying building raw materials needed for the major development projects, currently initiated in many parts of the country. This has resulted in delaying construction work of some of the government high priority development projects. This matter was reported to Mr. R. Paskaralingam, Senior Advisor to the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs by the relevant parties at the progress review meetings of the government development projects, held at the Ministry. Subsequently a request was made to the Director General, GSMB by Mr. R. Paskaralingam, to immediately initiate an island wide survey to identify minable locations of building raw materials (sand, rock and soil / gravel) and to estimate their resources in order to use them as per the requirements of the projects. 4 Accordingly, GSMB has commenced an island wide construction raw materials survey in early 2017. This report including maps, tables and annexes is the output of the survey conducted in Anuradhapura District. 2. Objectives The objectives of this survey are as follows. Conducting field surveys to identify suitable sites for mining construction raw materials. ( sand, gravel and rock) Identification of mining related issues and environmental concerns. Preparation of construction raw material resource map of Kurunegala District. Assessment of mineable quantities of construction materials in identified locations and their optimum extraction limits. 3. Area and Boundary Total area of Anuradhapura District is approximately 7179 square kilometers. The District is bordered by Kurunegala and Matale Districts on the South, Puttlm and Mannar districts on the West, Vavuniya district on the North and Trincomalee and Polonnaruwa districts on the East direction. The District is comprised of twenty two Divisional Secretariat Divisions and situated at a distance of about 220 km from Colombo (Fig. 1). 4. Location and Accessibility The area covered by Anuradhapura District lies within 1:50,000 topographic sheets of Anuradhapura, Kokilai, Pankulum, Vavuniya, Madhu Road, Wilpattu, Tantirimale, Medawachchiya, Horowpothana, Kalpitiya, Kala Oya, Kaudulla, Galgamuwa and Kekirawa. Main city of the district is Anuradhapura while Horowpothana, 5 Medawachchiya, Kekirawa and Thambuttegama are the medium scale towns located within the district. Anuradhapura is the largest and one of the poorly developed districts of the country. Accessibility to the Anuradhapura District is mainly through Colombo-Puttlum- Anuradhapura road. There is another path to access the district through Kurunega and Dambulla. These main roads are connected with a fair network of provincial roads (“B”,“C” & “D” grade) and Pradeshiya Sabha roads (“E” & “F” grade) existing within the District. 6 Figure 1 – Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Anuradhapura District 7 5. Climate Rainfall The entire Anuradhapura district falls within the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The District receives around 1255 mm of rainfall in average annually. This is usually limited to 4-5 months of the year. Monthly Average Temperatures The highest average monthly temperature is recorded in the months of May,June, July and September (33-340C) while the lowest average monthly temperature is encountered in the months October to February (22- 230C). Anuradhapura has an average annual temperature, ranging from 22.5 - 32.5 oC. 6. Physiography and Drainage Physiographically most of the area covered by Anuradhapura District belongs to lowest peneplain of Sri Lanka. The topography of the landscape is essentially derived from the processes of denudation and peneplanation that have worn down the land to its present form. This has resulted in a gently undulating peneplain with erosion remnants of the more resistant rock breaking the relief. Differential erosion of the peneplain surface has also left isolated remnants of rock outcrops with boundary land around their base. Three major streams flow through the district are Malwathu Oya, Kala Oya and Yan Oya. The numbers of small to medium scale streams are drained through the district. Malwathu Oya and Kala Oya drain in NW direction and meet Puttlum and Mannar districts before discharging in to the Indian Ocean while Yan Oya drains north east direction and meet Trincomalee district before entering the sea in Eastern beach. 8 7. Outline of Geology There are several rock formations of different ages and the main rock formations belong to Quaternary, Tertiary, Cretaceous, Jurassic and Precambrian ages. The dominant rock type of the island is Precambrian high grade metamorphic rocks covering approximately 90% of the island. Also sedimentary rocks (approximately 10%) can be found in some parts especially north western and northern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. Few igneous intrusions can be found within the island. These metamorphic rock formations can be subdivided in to four groups of Precambrian ages namely Highland Complex (HC), Vijayan Complex(VC), Wanni Complex(WC) and Kadugannawa Complex(KC) as shown in Fig.( 1). The Highland Complex composed of super crustal rocks (garnet sillimanite gneisses, metaquartzites, marbles, calc silicate rocks), orthogneisses of largly granitoid composition, and charnockitic rocks, metamorphosed under upper amphibolites to granulite facies conditions. The main rock structure of this complex is very clear syncline and anticline folded structures with clearly defined foliation planes. The Wanni Complex is characterized by thick sequences of ortho gneisses comprises of amphibolite grade, migmatitic, granitic and granodioritic gneisses in northwest and western sections of the country. Towards the northeast, granulite grade variants such as charnockitic rocks and minor granulite grade metasediments are common. Geologically the entire Anuradhapura District lies within the Wanni Complex of Sri Lanka. 9 Figure – 2: Simplified Geological Map of Sri Lanka showing Boundary of Anuradhapura District 10 8. Initial Study Upon awarding the study, GSMB commenced project related activities in February 2017. GSMB assigned a geologist with support staff to perform raw material survey in the district. A senior geologist was identified to co-ordinate the project related activities. Initially, all the available data on raw material occurrences within the district were collected and map showing all known locations of building raw materials of the district was prepared (both soft and hard copies). 9. Field Investigations After the desktop study, assigned field crew left for field in Anuradhapura District to commence field work in May, 2017. The field camp was established in Dahayagama area which is situated near the main city of the District. Field work in entire District was conducted within a period of two and a half months. During this period all the accessible areas in the District were investigated. After completing field investigations in July 2017, field unit shifted to Monaragala to commence the same survey in Monaragala district. This report, along with accompanying maps and