Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory said: “This investment in reserve definition drilling is a strong commitment by the company to the critical path work program for the definitive feasibility study. The drilling will ramp up to two rigs over the Kazakh summer months to deliver expected high-grade graphite drill intercepts and a higher confidence mineral resource estimate suitable for the DFS, which is targeted for a mid-2026 completion.”
Sarytogan’s graphite project is about 570km north-northwest of the nation’s major city of Almaty and 820km west of the country’s eastern border. It lies 190km by road southeast of the regional centre of Karaganda, the country’s fourth-biggest city in east Kazakhstan.
The project was first explored in the 1980s by trench sampling and limited diamond drilling. The company’s subsidiary Ushtogan LLP picked up the exploration cudgel again in 2018.
In March 2023, the company announced an indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate for the project by AMC Consultants totalling 229 million tonnes grading 28.9 per cent total graphitic carbon in the North and Central zones.
At that time, 55 per cent of the resource fell within the indicated category. Grades proved to be remarkably uniform across both zones and in both indicated and inferred resource categories, running within a very tight range of 26.9 per cent to 29.6 per cent, a difference of 2.7 per cent total graphitic carbon.
With these numbers, the project has emerged as a massive and exceptionally high-grade graphite mineral resource, setting Sarytogan on a path towards a pre-feasibility study that was completed last August.
The study defined the company’s staged development plan for the resource, aiming to keep Sarytogan’s capital expenditure to a minimum while yielding the company some attractive returns.
A tentative initial ore reserve was estimated at an as-processed dry 8.6 million tonnes grading 30 per cent total graphitic carbon to produce a dry concentrate mass of 2.65Mt at a grade of 81.4 per cent for 2.16Mt of concentrate.
Small-scale trial mining of 24t of free-dig material was excavated late last year. The material averaged 33 per cent total graphitic carbon, consistent with the initial years of the mine schedule.
Sixteen tonnes were blended for pilot-scale milling tests, with the results pointing to a likely 65 per cent reduction in the required installed mill power and a 36 per cent cut in grinding/comminution power, which translates to many other operational benefits.
A 700 kilogram sample was sent to Australia for pilot flotation and regrinding tests, the results of which are pending.
The estimated combined resource in the Central zone comprises 60Mt, while the North zone contributes to a hefty combined resource of 168Mt.
The North zone carries higher grades but has not been drilled to the same density as the Central zone that would enable it to meet prefeasibility and definitive feasibility study objectives at this stage.
With the prefeasibility study looking at an initial 25-year mine life for the Central zone on its own, without any extensional drilling, the company is sitting on a multi-generational high-quality resource that could supply the world with graphite for decades.
Sarytogan’s further development of the North zone will likely wait comfortably while the company beds down initial production from its Central zone and establishes its graphite markets.
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