DEVELOPMENT OF FULLERENE-BEARING SHUNGITE DEPOSITS IN THE
MANGAMPET BARYTES MINES IN ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA
Dr. R. Jagadiswara Rao
Professor of Geology Retired
Sri Venkateswara University
3-1-91, 2nd Cross West, Vidyanagar
Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh
rjagadiswara@gmail.com
94401-84012 & 98669-36499
MANGAMPET BARYTES DEPOSITS:
The Mangampet Barytes Deposit of the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation
Limited (APMDC) is known to be the largest among the known mud-grade barytes deposits of
the world with estimated reserves of about 74 million tonnes, of which around 15% has been so
far mined (Figure 1). The Corporation has mining lease for barytes over an extent of 223 ha in
Mangampet of Obulavaripalle Mandal in Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Of a turnover
of Rs. 2.13 billion achieved by the Corporation in 2009-10, the turnover through sale of
Mangampet barytes deposit by both domestic consumption and exports alone accounts for over
92%. Finding presently no use, the fullerene-bearing shungite (otherwise called carbonaceous
shale or black tuff) is presently thrown in the mine dumps along with white shale. In the light of
new uses for shungite in other parts of the world, there is need to convert this material presently
thrown as waste into value-added products and market them in a big way.
Figure 1: The latest Google Earth Pro image of an opencast barytes mine in Mangampet, Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh
with mine waste thrown as dumps towards north and northeast of the mine.
SHUNGITE DEPOSITS OF RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN:
Millions of tonnes of fullerene-bearing carbonaceous shungite deposits occur in the 2000-million
year old rocks of Proterozoic Age in the vicinity of Lake Onega in Karelia Republic of Russia
and Almaty Region in Kazakhstan, which possess unusual physical, chemical, physicochemical
and technological properties for diverse applications. Koksu Mining Co of Kazakhstan and
Carbon-Shungit Ltd of Russia are two private companies, which virtually monopolise mining,
processing, research, and development and marketing of processed shungite in those countries
for internal consumption as well as for export to European and Asian countries. Processed
shungite is used for a variety of purposes, including filler in tyres, rubbers and plastics, water
treatment, remediation of solid wastes and wastewaters of biological, agricultural and industrial
origin, reclamation of alkaline soils, soil stabilisation, enhancement of soil moisture and fertility,
increased plant growth and enhancement of crop yields, manufacture of feed additives, paints,
ferro-alloys, and silicon carbide, medicine, and decontamination of mercury, oil spills and rocket
fuels. The present sale value of shungite marketed is much more than the income obtained by the
APMDC from Mangampet barytes. By finding use to the fullerene-bearing shungite, there can be
a phenomenal increase in the income of the Corporation.
DISCOVERY OF FULLERENES
Three scientists of Rice University in USA and University of Sussex in UK have synthesized
fullerene (C60) in 1985 – a new form of carbon consisting of hollow cages of high symmetry and
high stability with unusual properties – fetching them the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The
main property of fullerene is that the extremely stable hollow cages in its structures trap
permanently trillions of particles in the size of a fraction of nanometer such as atoms and viruses.
Recent work particularly in USA on pure derivatives of fullerenes such as C60, C70, and C84
synthesised from pure carbon soot has led to development of new fields of science such as
nanochemistry, astrochemistry, superconductivity, and materials science. This is because of the
nano-tube structures of fullerenes, with voids as small as atoms for trapping them permanently in
their structures. A few companies in USA produce fullerenes on a small scale at high capital and
recurring cost to synthesise highly purified fullerene derivates. No effort has been so far made to
produce fullerenes from shungite owing to lack of technology. If this could be achieved,
fullerenes could be produced on a large scale from Mangampet shungite in an effective manner.
Figure 2 shows atomic structures of different carbon forms – graphite, carbine, diamond,
fullerene, shungite and nano-tube.
Figure 2: Different forms of Carbon
DISCOVERY OF FULLERENE-BEARING SHUNGITE IN MANGAMPET BARYTES
MINES:
With the publication of a research paper in the Bangalore-based Journal of Geological Society of
India in 2007 by a number of scientists from Geological Survey of India of Nagpur and
Hyderabad, Stanford University and Cihergen Biosystems of San Francisco, Department of
Airborne Mineral Surveys & Exploration (AMSE) of Bangalore and Jaipur, Pune University and
National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) of Hyderabad, India became the third country
in the world to have millions of tonnes of shungite in the 2000-million year old Mangampet
Barytes Deposits of Proterozoic age under the possession of the APMDC.
The work of Dr. Y. Sreedhar Murthy, Former Professor of Osmania University and CEO of GeoResources Technologies consultants Pvt. Ltd with a grant provided by the DMRTUF Trust of the
Government of Andhra Pradesh revealed that fullerene in Mangampet shungite fetches a value
higher than that of gold if only techniques could be evolved to isolate from it fullerene
derivatives in the purest form. Of the five Mangampet shungite samples he got analysed in the
laboratories of Nano-C, Inc at Westwood, MA in USA – a reputed company synthesising highpurity fullerene derivatives from carbon soot, one shungite sample (labelled S7-OB-5) gave an
unusually high concentration of 789 gm/ton of C60, 430 gm/ton of C70, and 15.6 gm/ton of C84,
while other samples gave consistently low values. When I contacted Dr. Viktor Vejins, President
and CEO of Nano-C, he expressed the opinion that it would be worthwhile to take up research and
development to isolate high-purity fullerenes from such high-grade shungites. Mr. H.D. Nagaraja,
Technical Director of the APMDC expressed that using certain morphological characteristics;
this high-grade shungite could be distinguished and separated from the low-grade shungite in the
Mangampet mine dumps. While putting shungite into use in the way it was done by Russia and
Kazakhstan, it would be worthwhile to separate high-grade Mangampet shungite to obtain highpurity fullerene derivatives.
In response to a global notification made by the APMDC seeking expression of interest to
develop Mangampet fullerene, the APMDC has identified eleven prospective bidders (viz.,
Alkali Metals Ltd of Hyderabad, AMR Constructions Ltd of Hyderabad, Dhansar Engineering
Co Pvt. Ltd of Kolkata, Hindustan Dorr Oliver Ltd of Mumbai, IBC Ltd of Chennai, Nagarjuna
Constructions Co Ltd of Hyderabad, PLR Projects Pvt. Ltd of Hyderabad, Ramgad Minerals &
Mining Ltd of Hospet, Ras Natural Resources Pvt. Ltd of Hyderabad, Sushee Hi-Tech
Constructions Pvt. Ltd of Hyderabad and Trimex Industries (P) Ltd of Chennai) in their website.
The companies in Kazakhstan and Russia, who are hard pressed for capital to develop even their
own deposits, are reluctant to develop the Indian deposit as it can even pose a threat to their
business. The global notification has not created interest among the American companies
engaged in the synthesis of purest fullerene derivatives from carbon soot as their technical
knowhow is completely different from that required to isolate purest fullerene derivatives from
rocks containing fullerene.
A two-year Operation Fullerene Project by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) at Hyderabad in
2010 who depended on a Bangalore-based laboratory for fullerene analysis ended up with a
disappointed note that fullerene is absent in the Mangampet black shale. The GSI report however
mentions that had they got access to analytical facilities such as available in Nano-C, they would
have achieved success.
WORK TO BE CARRIED:
There is urgent need to take up research and development on a big scale for the effective
utilisation of millions of tonnes of shungite obtained and being obtained during mining of
Mangampet mud-grade bartytes and presently thrown as waste in the mine dumps. It may be
noted that even Koksu Mining Co established under private sector in Kazakhstan had to spend
over six million US $ between 2003-2008 to make mining, processing, and marketing of various
shungite products viable and productive. Similar efforts should be made for the effective use of
Mangampet fullerene-bearing shungite in the way Russia and Kazakhstan have been using their
shungite deposits for a variety of uses and in the way certain American companies have been
synthesising fullerene derivates from carbon soot for using in the emerging fields of
nanochemistry, astrochemistry, superconductivity, and materials science.