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Michael Busbridge
Sarytogan Graphite has locked in a key water licence, removing a critical hurdle to the ongoing definitive feasibility study (DFS) in Kazakhstan. The fresh permit has further strengthened the company’s already growing list of project approvals for its world-class graphite development.
The move follows the 2024 pre-feasibility study that stamped Sarytogan as a low-cost, high-margin graphite play.
Previous approvals for the project include the grant of the mining licence, an environmental permit, the lease of land for a downstream plant and authorisation for power infrastructure for development.
The State Committee for Natural Resources and Ecology of the Ministry of Industry and Construction approved the new licence, allowing water to be drawn from the Sherubainura River alluvial aquifer, 10km from the project, at a rate of 2,040 cubic metres per day for an initial period of 27 years.
‘Good quality water nearby is critical to the success of every mining project.’
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory said: ‘Reliable access to the required quantities of good quality water nearby is critical to the success of every mining project’.
The company’s graphite deposit lies in central Kazakhstan, 190 kilometres by highway from the city of Karaganda, the fifth-most populous city in the country, with a population of 497,800. Karaganda is largely an industrial city and coal mining is a major component of its economy.
The flagship project hosts a world-class resource of 225 million tonnes grading 29.2 per cent total graphitic carbon for 66 million tonnes of contained graphite.
It is one of just 13 projects worldwide to secure EU backing outside the bloc and has been granted strategic project status under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act.
Under the Act, strategic projects are identified to safeguard Europe’s ability to extract, process and recycle critical raw materials, while diversifying supply and boosting security of supply chains.
Sarytogan’s metallurgical testwork in 2022 delivered strong graphite recoveries and confirmed the ability to produce ultra-high-purity concentrates of up to 99.999 per cent carbon – the coveted “five nine” standard – using thermal purification and spheronisation techniques.
The company is now hawking three potential end products, including a microcrystalline graphite for traditional uses, ultra-high purity fines for advanced industrial uses in batteries and spherical purified graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries.
More recently, Sarytogan awarded engineering contracts for its definitive feasibility study to global heavyweights Wood and WSP, with completion expected by mid-year and construction slated to start in 2027.
Elsewhere, the company is hunting for copper porphyry-style deposits at its Baynazar and Kopa projects across the prospective Central Asian orogenic belt in Kazakhstan. The belt hosts multiple large copper systems and some of the world’s lowest-cost copper mines.
A shallow drilling blitz late last year at its Ilkin prospect, part of the Baynazar project, uncovered a broad copper bedrock anomaly with grades reaching up to 0.5 per cent copper and 3.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, starting close to surface.
Inspection of outcrops and trenches has shown the same alteration patterns seen at many of the world’s major porphyry copper and copper-gold deposits.
With a critical water licence now in hand, EU strategic backing secured and a DFS racing towards the finish line, Sarytogan Graphite is steadily de-risking what may be shaping up as one of the world’s most compelling graphite developments.
As construction timing sharpens and parallel copper upside continues to emerge across its Kazakhstan portfolio, the company looks to be quietly positioning itself at the intersection of critical minerals demand, supply-chain security and scale.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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