Sarytogan Graphite’s upstream DFS supports a 50,000-tonne-a-year Kazakhstan graphite operation with a pre-tax NPV8 of US$132.7 million, but the company remains unfunded and without binding offtake. Trading in its shares has also been suspended while it seeks Western Australian court orders over an inadvertently unlodged options prospectus.
- US$132.7 million pre-tax NPV8 and 19.8% IRR for upstream project
- 50,000tpa graphite concentrate target over a nominal 50-plus-year mine life
- US$80.5 million initial capex and US$364/t operating cost estimate
- No project funding or binding offtake agreements secured
- ASX suspension pending court orders over SGAO Options prospectus issue
DFS puts a price on Sarytogan’s upstream project
Sarytogan Graphite Limited (ASX:SGA) has put a substantial development case around its Central Kazakhstan graphite project, with an upstream definitive feasibility study supporting 50,000 tonnes a year of concentrate production. The study estimates a pre-tax NPV8 of US$132.7 million, an internal rate of return of 19.8% and an EBITDA margin of 51%, based on US$80.5 million of initial capital, operating costs of US$364 a tonne and an average selling price of US$805 a tonne.
The proposed operation would ramp from 15,000 tonnes in its first year to nameplate capacity in year four. Planned output is split between classified fine products for drilling fluids, lubricants and friction applications, unclassified concentrate for foundry and iron recarburiser markets, and material earmarked for Sarytogan’s proposed downstream battery-products business.
Large resource, deliberately modest first mine
The mine plan is built on a 14.5 million-tonne JORC Ore Reserve grading 29.1% total graphitic carbon, comprising 2.5 million tonnes of Proved and 12 million tonnes of Probable material. A higher-grade component of 8.9 million tonnes grading 31.8% TGC supplies most of the planned schedule, while the broader Mineral Resource stands at 225 million tonnes grading 29.2% TGC.
That resource base gives Sarytogan considerable geological scale, although the company is proposing a relatively small initial operation. The study says the scheduled high-grade feed uses less than 4% of the Mineral Resource over a nominal 50-plus-year mine life. The current resource and feasibility work was preceded by a Measured resource upgrade, which added 5.4 million tonnes to the Central Graphite Zone’s Measured category.
Chinese EPC plan could shorten construction
Sarytogan has based its capital estimate on a lump-sum turnkey EPC quotation from Chinese contractor Yantai Jinpeng. The package includes a US$13.3 million beneficiation plant, US$16.5 million of plant infrastructure, US$10.8 million for a 75-kilometre 110kV power connection and US$13.2 million for the tailings facility. Yantai Jinpeng’s proposal points to five months of detailed design followed by 13 months of construction, compared with a longer EPCM pathway considered in the study.
The proposed upstream circuit is not the whole investment story. Sarytogan continues to cite a 2024 pre-feasibility study estimate of an additional US$367 million downstream pre-tax NPV8 for US$194 million of extra capital, but those figures have been carried forward from the earlier PFS rather than established by this DFS. The company plans to commence a separate downstream DFS.
Funding, approvals and customer testing remain open
The economics are not yet matched by a committed financing package. Sarytogan says it has received enquiries and expressions of interest from debt financiers and potential marketing parties, but has secured neither the required project capital nor binding offtake agreements. It says development could require equity, debt, prepaid offtake or a combination, leaving dilution and ownership outcomes unresolved.
Further work includes customer qualification, purification and end-use testing, including planned scale-up to 5Ah pouch-cell testing, an ESIA Addendum required by international banks, permit variations and detailed infrastructure design. The company has environmental approval for a larger mine feed rate, but further approvals for the plant, tailings facility and other infrastructure are still to be progressed.
Shares suspended over options prospectus issue
The project announcement arrived alongside a separate market-sensitive complication. ASX has suspended Sarytogan’s securities at the company’s request under Listing Rule 17.2, pending an announcement about its application to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The application concerns the company’s stated inadvertent failure to lodge a prospectus for the issue of SGAO Options on 11 December 2025.
Sarytogan requested the suspension until court orders are received or trading resumes on 26 October 2026, whichever comes first. The suspension does not alter the DFS economics, but it adds an immediate legal and market-access issue to a development story that already depends on future funding, customer acceptance and construction execution.
Bottom Line?
The DFS supplies a credible technical and economic base, but the next valuation test is whether Sarytogan can convert interest into binding funding and offtake while resolving the options matter.
Questions in the middle?
- What court orders will Sarytogan obtain over the unlodged SGAO Options prospectus, and when will trading resume?
- Can the company secure debt or prepaid offtake on terms that limit equity dilution?
- Will customer qualification and downstream testing support the planned higher-value battery products?