Sarytogan Graphite (ASX: SGA) has reached a key point at its eponymous graphite project in Kazakhstan, having received a mine development environmental permit for the project from the country’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.
With this vital permit in hand, the company can now look forward to January when it expects to secure granting of the mining licence necessary for its Central Asian project.
Saraytogan says the environmental permit is the final necessary prelude to a mining licence being granted. According to the Kazakh mining code, the mining licence is to be received in January, within 10 working days of the environmental permit.
The permit embraces all the typical mining activities, including open pit mining of graphitic ore, ore stockpiling and establishing secure repositories for mine and landfill waste-rock and any wet tailings.
The permit also defines standards and limits for dust, liquid and gaseous emissions and requires the company to put in place an environmental monitoring and management system to support statutory periodic reporting.
As part of the environmental approvals process, Sarytogan held public environmental review hearings in three villages near the proposed venture and says residents supported the project.
“This is another important milestone in the development of the Sarytogan graphite project. It is the culmination of several years of environmental studies and engagement with the local communities. This permit will now allow the granting of the mining licence, expected in January 2025.”
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory
Sarytogan’s graphite deposit lies within in the Karaganda region of Central Kazakhstan. It is 190km by highway from the industrial city of Karaganda, which is the fourth biggest city in Kazakhstan.
The Sarytogan graphite deposit was first explored during the Soviet era in the 1980s with sampling by trenching and diamond drilling.
In 2018, Sarytogan’s subsidiary Ushtogan LLP resumed exploration of the project which currently has an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 229 million tonnes with a 28.9 per cent total graphitic composite grade.
Encouragingly, the company has produced bulk flotation concentrates at higher than 80 per cent carbon and further upgraded the concentrate up to 99.9992 per cent carbon - the coveted “five nines purity” - by thermal purification, without any chemical pre-treatment.
Kazakhstan may be a relatively unknown country for Australian investors, but it bears some striking similarities to home.
The vast nation covers some 2.7 million square kilometres, making it the same size as Western Australia, and is the world’s ninth biggest nation and its largest landlocked country. With just over 20 million, its population is just a few million less than that of Australia.
It dominates Central Asia economically and politically and accounts for about 60 percent of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry but it also has vast mineral resources.
Kazakhstan also has the highest Human Development Index ranking in the region.
It’s not every day a new project with a reasonable life span comes to an area which has the potential to employ local citizens with multiple skills and trades in various and often high levels of specialisation.
It is almost a given Sarytogan’s graphite project will offer new and welcome opportunities and a measure of employment stability to the region.
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