Further Drilling Success In Brazil
Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has obtained more high-grade results from ongoing Resource development and extensional drilling at its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil, setting the project on a path to significant Resource growth.
Managing Director, Darren Gordon, said the latest drill results continue to demonstrate that the Company’s two-pronged approach to drive Resource development and growth at Jaguar over the next 18 months is delivering on both fronts.
“We have over 65,000m of drilling planned at Jaguar by the end of this year aimed at both upgrading and expanding the already impressive globally significant Resource base of 58.9Mt at 0.96% Ni for 562,600 tonnes of contained nickel, with the latest assay results providing strong confidence in our ability to deliver on both of these objectives,” he said.
“The first phase of our Resource development plan comprises in-fill drilling of the Scoping Study pits and stopes, with this drilling expected to support further upgrades of the Inferred component of the existing Resource to Indicated and Measured categories later this year.
“In parallel, we are also targeting Resource growth through our step-out drilling, with outstanding intersections such as 64.9m at 1.07% Ni only 30m below the currently designed pit floor at Jaguar Central offering the potential to drive the pit deeper or add additional underground stopes to our future operations.
“With the arrival of three additional diamond rigs over the coming weeks, we will ramp-up our step-out drilling program and push even harder to expand the Resource inventory. We also expect to start seeing results from our regional RC drilling programme, which is focused on systematically exploring the first ten greenfields targets that lie outside the current Resource limits, starting with the promising Leão Prospect.
“The coming months are set to be an exciting time on site as exploration activities ramp-up considerably.”
In March 2021, the company delivered an updated JORC 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Jaguar Project totalling 58.9Mt at 0.96% Ni for 562,600 tonnes of contained nickel.
The Jaguar Central Deposit is the second biggest deposit at the Jaguar Project, with a current Resource of 10.2Mt at 1.00% Ni for more than 100kt of contained nickel, including an Indicated component of 8.4Mt at 0.99% Ni for 83kt of contained nickel. Consistent positive results from recent step-out drilling indicate strong potential to grow this Resource.
The Jaguar Central Deposit is hosted in a Sub-Volcanic Porphyritic Dacite and features a high-grade ore shoot that starts at surface at the western end of the deposit and plunges sub-horizontally to the east across nine drill sections and more than 500m of continuous strike. The mineralised shoot is up to 70m wide and over 100m deep on some sections. Mineralisation remains open at depth and along the entire strike of the deposit and down plunge to the east.
Nickel grades previously reported within the mineralised shoot are consistently over 1.0% nickel 2 with outstanding continuous down-hole intersections such as 30.8m at 3.30% Ni., 33.7m at 2.23% Ni (JAG-DD-20-056), 31.4m at 2.47% Ni (PKS-JAGU-DH00030) and 67.3m at 1.20% Ni (JAG-DD-20-047).
Importantly, recent hole JAG-DD-21-142 on section 477180mE intersected 64.9m at 1.07% Ni and 2.10% Zn from 216.5m, just 30m below the current pit limits. This drill hole was not part of the March 2021 MRE. The thick high- grade semi-massive intersection is expected to increase the Resource envelope at Jaguar Central and has the potential to drive the existing pit deeper or support future underground operations.
Mr Gordon said interestingly, high portions of sphalerite were logged and the interval in hole JAG-DD-21-142 referred to above included 17.7m at 1.62% Ni and 4.39% Zn.
From an exploration perspective, zinc is important at Jaguar as it is used as a proxy for ductility and highlights proximity to the high-grade nickel zones. Additionally, the recently completed Value Add Scoping Study demonstrated that production of a zinc-rich Mixed Sulphide Precipitate (MSP) could add significant value to the project.
For further information please visit: https://www.centaurus.com.au/
