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Doug Bright
Sarytogan Graphite has landed a key milestone for its flagship graphite deposit in Central Kazakhstan, with a significant JORC-compliant upgrade to its mineral resource estimate, which includes a maiden measured reserve of 5.4 million tonnes at 28.3 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC).
For the first time, Sarytogan’s central graphite zone – the backbone of its PFS mine plan for the first 23 years of production – now hosts a measured resource.
Significantly, the new reserve alone supports more than three decades of initial mine life at the targeted processing rate of 0.15 Mtpa.
The full upgraded CGZ resource now comprises a total combined measured, indicated and inferred resource of 56.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 28.8 per cent TGC.
‘Achieving Measured classification is a significant step forward for the Sarytogan Graphite Project.’
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory
Combined with the previously reported northern graphite zone’s indicated and inferred 168 million tonnes at 29.3 per cent TGC, the project’s total mineral resource inventory across the central and northern zones is a massive 225 million tonnes at 29.2 per cent TGC, casting Sarytogan’s graphite venture into the heady realm of a truly world-class deposit.
The graphite deposit belongs to the black shale regional-metamorphic type. Its general geology comprises graphite mineralisation hosted in metamorphosed carbonaceous siltstones, shales and conglomerate sediments. Local hydrothermally altered greisen zones add to the mix, forming a mineralised package more than 80 metres thick within the Sarytoganbai syncline.
A syncline is a trough-shaped fold in one or more rock layers that has formed by compressive tectonic forces that have bent the layers downwards. The sedimentary sequence has been subject to strong contact metamorphism by its proximity to granite intrusions which has led to the formation of the high-grade graphite mineralisation.
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory said: “Achieving Measured classification is a significant step forward for the Sarytogan Graphite Project. The new MRE is informed by much closer spaced drilling at 50m x 50m that has enabled a more detailed geological and structural interpretation and exclusion of waste blocks.
The latest resource estimate is underpinned by an extensive dataset from 82 historical and recent diamond drill holes and 18 trenches, delivering a high level of confidence in geological and grade continuity. That confidence is reinforced by close-spaced drilling across the measured areas, which tightly constrains the mineralised system.
The upgraded mineral resource estimate, including the new measured reserve, is part of the definitive feasibility study slated for completion by mid-year.
Sarytogan’s metallurgical testwork has demonstrated strong graphite recoveries and the capacity to produce high-purity concentrates of up to 99.999 per cent carbon – known as five nine purity – via thermal purification and spheronised material suitable for use in modern lithium-ion battery designs, as well as other industrial uses.
Sarytogan says it will complete pilot-scale flotation in Australia this quarter for customer samples, followed by pilot purification and spheronisation in the US.
The project enjoys strong support from its strategic status under the EU’s critical raw materials act, with mining lease and environmental permits already in hand.
Sarytogan Graphite’s resource re-evaluation has significantly sharpened geological confidence across its priority mining area, materially de-risking the path to production. Notably, it has achieved this while preserving the project’s status as one of the highest-grade, large-scale graphite assets on the global stage.
The resource classification and scale upgrade represent a major hurdle that Sarytogan has now crossed. A high-grade measured reserve in the company’s envisaged initial starter pit that could sustain production at the current planned rate for a generation is exactly what lenders and off-takers love to see.
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