Sarytogan Graphite Ltd (ASX:SGA) has welcomed positive final results from its 2022 drilling campaign at Sarytogan Graphite Deposit in central Kazakhstan.
All assays for the 46 diamond drill holes drilled for 3,044.6 metres during the year are now in.
Highlights
These results reveal significant graphite intersections above 25% total graphitic carbon (TGC) returned around the margins of the Central Graphite Zone (CGZ) within the existing 209 million tonnes at 28.5% TGC inferred mineral resource, including:
- 13.3 metres at 33.6% TGC from surface including 4.4 metres at 37.9% in St-94;
- 5.5 metres at 29.3% TGC from 1.3 metres and 69.1 metres at 25.3% from 12.3 metres including 7.1 metres at 39.5% and including 4 metres at 36.5% and 13.6 metres at 21.3% from 91.6 metres in St-97; and
- 22.9 metres at 31.2% TGC from surface including 6 metres at 36.3% in St-98.
Near-surface high-grade graphite confirmed with close-spaced drilling in the Northern Graphite Zone (NGZ) returned the following intersections:
- 26.8 metres at 30.4% TGC from surface ending in mineralisation in St-99; and
- 47.6 metres at 31.3% TGC from surface including 13.9 metres at 40.2% and including 6.8 metres at 37.0% in St-100.
Sarytogan managing director Sean Gregory said: “All assays from the 2022 drilling have now been received.
“The results have consistently returned thick intersections of high-grade graphite mineralisation both within and beyond the existing giant mineral resource.
“The planned upgrade to the mineral resource estimate is now underway ahead of further metallurgical test-work and economic evaluation.”
Next steps
The company is sponsoring optimisation work at Australian and German laboratories, following excellent early results in 2022 that returned up to 99.87% TGC purity.
A mineral resource upgrade, focusing on estimating a proportion of indicated resources as well as increasing the total tonnage, is now underway ahead of further metallurgical test-work and economic evaluation.