In-Pit Drilling Identifies New Zones Outside Current Nickel Sulphide Resource
Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) is continuing to ramp-up exploration drilling activities at its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil with new assay results highlighting the potential for further significant growth of its Mineral Resource inventory.
The company expects to have up to eight rigs on-site by next month as it advances its planned 65,000 metres of diamond and RC drilling across the Jaguar Project, aimed at delivering an updated Mineral Resource in Q4 this year as the foundation for a Pre-Feasibility Study.
The recently completed Jaguar Base Case Scoping Study considered open pit and underground mining over an initial 10-year mine life, delivering nickel sulphide feed to a 2.7Mtpa conventional nickel flotation plant to produce approximately 20,000 tonnes of recovered nickel metal per year at a low life-of-mine (LOM) C1 operating cost of ~US$2.41/lb.
The company is set to deliver a Value-Added Scoping Study in May that considers the production of nickel sulphate, to supply the growing EV battery market, through the inclusion of a Pressure Oxidation circuit to maximise the value of the nickel concentrate produced from the flotation plant outlined in the Base Case Scoping Study.
In the meantime, Centaurus has received new assay results from drilling over the last few months, including a number of outstanding new nickel sulphide intercepts from the Jaguar South and Central Deposits.
The new results, many of which are outside of the current Resource limits, will support the Q4 2021 Mineral Resource update that will underpin the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and maiden JORC Ore Reserve Estimate set for completion in Q1 2022.
Centaurus’ Managing Director, Darren Gordon, said that latest drill results from Jaguar continue to either meet or exceed expectations, providing a very strong foundation for next chapter of growth in the already impressive resource base at the Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project.
“At 58.9Mt at 0.96% Ni for 562,600 tonnes of contained nickel, the Jaguar Project already hosts one of the biggest nickel sulphide resource inventories globally and these new results from ongoing step-out and extensional drilling are setting an excellent platform to lift this Resource base to the next level,” Mr Gordon said.
“Importantly, open pit and stope optimisations that were completed as part of the recently released Base Case Scoping Study have helped guide the drilling, focused on extending existing resources and identifying new resource zones that are likely to fall into bigger pits or new stopes as the project grows during the forthcoming PFS.
“The step-out drilling is delivering exceptional results and the structural model and EM conductor plates continue to guide our geologists as they plan deeper drilling. We expect to continue to add resources down-dip and grow the underground operations that were identified in the Scoping Study at the Jaguar South and Onça Preta deposits.
“New deeper step-out drilling at Jaguar Central has also delivered excellent results, and again there is outstanding potential to either deepen the pits or develop new underground operations at Jaguar Central, which will be evaluated as part of the PFS.
“Furthermore, to intersect new shallow high-grade zones, like 12.9m at 2.95% Ni, where no mineralisation had previously been intersected is also very positive. This zone, which is inside the current Jaguar South pit, was previously modelled as low-grade and waste material but is now likely to contribute high-grade feed in the early stages of the mine plan and have a positive impact on early strip-ratios.
“With more diamond rigs arriving soon and an RC rig to arrive on site this week, we expect to have up to eight rigs operational next month, making this one of the biggest nickel sulphide exploration programmes underway anywhere in the world.”
