Graphite drilling ramps up with second rig on site

Sarytogan Graphite (ASX:SGA) has accelerated drilling operations at its graphite project in Central Kazakhstan with a second drill rig now on site.

Adding a second rig will help the company meet the objectives of its current 4,000m diamond drill program by the end of the year, which involves drilling across all mineralised areas including into areas where coarser flakes are anticipated.

It is hoped that once completed, the drilling program will contribute to a meaningful resource upgrade — one of the key objectives that we want to see SGA achieve this year, as outlined in our SGA Investment Memo.

SGA is releasing drilling results to the ASX in regular batches as they become available. The first batch from the Central Graphite Zone, which included multiple thick and high grade intercepts, was reported on 15 August 2022.

At that time, SGA said that metallurgical testwork was also underway which will help clarify the flake size distribution of the graphite resource — another of our key objectives for SGA.

The second batch of results is expected later this month and will include results from holes drilled outside of the project’s current JORC mineral resource estimate area (209Mt @ 28.5% TGC Inferred Mineral Resource).

Managing Director Sean Gregory commented on how easy it has been to add additional personnel and equipment in Kazakhstan, which he said is a testament to SGA’s strong in-country relationships and the maturity of the Kazakhstan mining industry.