Abstract:
Sri Lanka is the only country in the world known to extract and produce commercially viable
quantities of natural crystalline vein graphite. Currently, Bogala graphite mines and
Kahatagaha graphite mine are famous underground mines and the largest natural graphite
producers, which supply natural vein graphite in the form of various product categories to
the international graphite market. Out of that two major mines, Bogala graphite mines
extracts approximately 350 metric tons of natural graphite per month. When it comes to
extracted graphite from underground (run of mine), the raw graphite consists of various
carbon contents in the form of lumps, chips, and powder. Such graphite is subjected to hand
sorting or mechanical separation before it is used for further processing to produce various
product categories as requested by local or international customers. During the graphite
processing stage, it is a real dilemma to decide that with available graphite in raw form in
which carbon content varying from 80% to 99%, to produce saleable product to which
customer orders with a view to getting maximum profit out of various pricing for various
saleable graphite products that Bogala graphite mine produces. So, it is worth finding out
which product mix gives the highest monthly revenue utilising its limited monthly
underground mine production and limited machine capacities. The problem addressed here
is to determine the product mix (combination of sales package) to be adopted by the
company for selling her graphite products at which the optimal profit level would be
attained.
Citation:
Ekanayake, E.M.K.B. (2021). Development of mathematical model to decide the optimal graphite product mix to enhance the profit. In D.M.D.O.K. Dissanayake & C.L. Jayawardena (Eds.), Proceedings of International Symposium on Earth Resources Management & Environment 2021 (pp. 54-59). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa. https://uom.lk/sites/default/files/ere/files/ISERME%202021%20Proceedings_2.pdf