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 per cent 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.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au