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Doug Bright
Results from one of Sarytogan Graphite’s first three holes completed in its maiden diamond drilling program at its Ilksan prospect in central Kazakhstan has smashed out a massive 229-metre-long copper intercept from surface to end-of-hole.
The impressive hit from Ilksan, part of the company’s Baynazar copper exploration project, graded 0.14 per cent copper from surface to the end of the hole and confirms the presence of a copper porphyry-style mineralised system. The result included a couple of higher-grade zones, with an 11.6m section going 0.26 per cent copper from just 33.8m downhole and a solid 16.2m returning 0.36 per cent copper, 0.12 grams per tonne gold and 1.4 g/t silver from 159.7m.
The discovery is significant as the geology indicates the company is in the right neighbourhood for a major copper deposit. Management says the hole revealed strong potassic alteration, a key indicator that it is in the sweet spot, or the optimum vertical position within a porphyry intrusion for a copper deposit to form.
The drill core has lit up with a who’s who of the copper minerals family, including malachite, azurite, tenorite, cuprite, chalcopyrite and bornite, confirming a fertile system. Those minerals represents a typical porphyry copper suite ranging from the near-surface, weathered, oxidised environment through a transitional or secondary enrichment zone and deeper to the copper sulphide chalcopyrite in the fresh primary sulphide zone.
‘It has been an exciting time for the geologists on site logging the abundant copper minerals.’
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory
The successful drill hit is no accident and comes after Sarytogan’s systematic exploration build-up at Baynazar, which the company pegged as a greenfields tenement back in 2024. The project sits just 25km from Sarytogan’s world-class graphite deposit.
The company’s geologists first homed in on the area after reviewing historical Soviet-era exploration records, which pointed to a shallow drillhole, known as “C-16”, which hit copper mineralisation. While the reliability of the old data was unknown, it provided a starting point.
Sarytogan then followed up with modern exploration techniques, including high-resolution airborne magnetic surveys and extensive soil sampling, which identified classic porphyry-style geochemical zonation with copper in the centre and lead-zinc halos on the outside.
Trenching through the anomaly delivered a 270m-long intercept grading 0.13 per cent copper, including a 92m section at 0.2 per cent copper and another 30m interval assaying 0.31 per cent copper. Subsequent shallow drilling then defined a strong, 600m-diameter bedrock anomaly with grades up to 0.5 per cent copper from just 6m depth.
The latest 229m drill hit was collared just 10m away from one of two shallow Soviet-era diamond holes, drilled for a total of 320m, to test the theory that a significant porphyry system could be lurking below.
Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory said: “The diamond drill core and assays at Ilksan demonstrate the presence of a fertile copper porphyry system. The strong potassic alteration indicate that we are at the optimum position in the intrusion for copper deposit formation. It has been an exciting time for the geologists on site logging the abundant copper minerals of malachite, azurite, tenorite, cuprite, chalcopyrite, and bornite.”
With the first assays confirming a broad mineralised copper system right where its geological modelling suggested it would be, the company is now keenly awaiting results from two more diamond drillholes already completed at Ilksan. One of those holes was drilled vertically into the heart of the highest-grade surface anomaly, while the other was angled to test for extensions to the north.
Samples from those holes are already at the laboratory, with results expected in the coming weeks.
If either of those holes can replicate or build on this impressive opening gambit, it is entirely possible Sarytogan could have unearthed a significant new copper play right next door to its massive graphite resource. Nailing two quite distinct but complementary strategic mineral resources a mere 25km apart which could end up supplying the global electrification imperative would have to deserve of some kind of award.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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