Step-Out Drilling Reinforces Growth Potential
Centaurus Metals’ (ASX:CTM) ongoing Resource development and growth drilling at its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil continues to deliver consistent high-grade semi-massive and massive nickel sulphide intercepts outside the current resource limits
Drilling (principally step-out) at the Jaguar South Deposit continues to return consistent high-grade nickel intersections:
- 16.0m at 1.32% Ni from 363.4m, including 6.8m at 2.29% Ni from 366.4m;
- 5.0m at 2.56% Ni from 26.5m;
- 9.7m at 1.21% Ni from 52.9m, including 3.0m at 2.18% Ni from 58.0m;
- 13.5m at 0.72% Ni from 245.0m;
- 4.0m at 1.80% Ni from 315.0m, including 2.0m at 2.90% Ni from 315.0m;
- 5.1m at 1.23% Ni from 325.0m
Strike extension drilling at the Jaguar Central Deposit has outlined a 60m extension to the east of the Resource limits, with visuals confirming the continuation of the Jaguar Central high-grade shoot:
- 14.4m at 1.10% Ni from 297.0m, including 3.0m at 2.20% Ni from 300.0m;
- 15.5m at 0.96% Ni from 308.8m, including 2.4m at 2.28% Ni from 308.8m;
- 6.7m at 1.43% Ni from 325.4m, including 3.7m at 2.14% Ni from 325.4m.
In-fill drilling at the Jaguar West and Jaguar Central North Deposits continues to highlight the consistency of mineralisation in the deposits and the robust nature of the existing Resource model.
Centaurus’ Managing Director, Darren Gordon, said the consistently strong results being generated from stepout and strike extensional drilling provided a clear indication of the opportunity to further expand the already globally significant resource inventory at Jaguar.
“Importantly, we expect that any new resources or extensions delineated at the four deposits that already have planned underground operations are likely to be picked up in the next round of stope optimisations and therefore brought rapidly into the mine plan.
“This is important as these additional resources can either contribute to a longer mine life or a re-assessment of the planned production rate.
“We now have seven rigs on site with two more to arrive in the coming weeks. This expanded drilling capacity will allow us to continue aggressive work on both resource growth and greenfields drilling in conjunction with the development drilling required for project development activities.
“This multi-pronged approach sets us up for what should be a big second half of project growth at Jaguar.
“Additionally, our new DHEM probe has arrived on site, giving us the capacity to survey down to a depth of 750m. The semi-massive and massive nature of the Jaguar mineralisation is highly conductive and DHEM has been a great tool to help guide our drilling to-date.
“With the ability to survey down to 750m we plan to start stepping-out even further to test the deep plumbing that we know these systems can have.
“Jaguar is already a standout project in terms of scale and quality amongst undeveloped nickel sulphide projects worldwide and, at the planned nickel production rate of +20,000tpa, Centaurus is firmly on track to become a global Top-10 nickel sulphide producer.
“The fact that Jaguar stands to grow a lot more can only further enhance its credentials as a potential source of clean, low-emission nickel sulphides to meet surging global nickel demand as the world moves rapidly to embrace electrification and decarbonisation.”
In March 2021, the company delivered an updated JORC 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Jaguar Project of 58.9Mt at 0.96% Ni for 562,600 tonnes of contained nickel. The next resource upgrade is planned for the end of the year.
For further information please visit: https://www.centaurus.com.au
