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Centaurus Metals Delivers Strong Economics from Jaguar Feasibility Study

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has completed a Feasibility Study looking into development of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals reported the outcomes of the Jaguar Feasibility Study demonstrate the potential for Jaguar to become a sustainable, long-term and low-cost producer of low-emission nickel for global markets, generating strong financial returns while also delivering social and economic benefits for local communities.

The company claims Jaguar as currently being one of the largest undeveloped nickel sulphide projects globally and a highly strategic potential source of unencumbered nickel concentrate product, particularly for the EV battery supply chain.

The Feasibility Study only took into account the mining of open pit nickel sulphide ore over an initial 18-year mine life, delivering nickel sulphide feed to a 3.5 million tonnes per annum conventional nickel flotation plant to produce approximately 18,700 tonnes of recovered nickel metal per year at a low life-of-mine (LOM) C1 operating cost of US$2.30/lb and AISC of US$3.57/lb, on a contained nickel basis.

“The compelling economics and forecast financial returns outlined in the Study confirm Jaguar’s outstanding fundamentals and our long-standing belief that we have one of the world’s best new nickel sulphide projects, both from an economic and sustainability perspective,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The Study shows that Jaguar has a clear pathway to development, forming the cornerstone of our strategy to build a Brazilian strategic minerals business to benefit our shareholders, our people and the communities where we operate.

“The delivery of the Jaguar Feasibility Study puts us firmly on a path to achieve this vision, with compelling economics and ESG credentials that will be highly sought after as the world continues to transition to electrification.

“The Feasibility Study shows a project which yields outstanding financial and economic returns while at the same time delivering significant social benefits to our local communities over a long period of time.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Centaurus Metals Re-Shapes Jaguar Feasibility Study to Focus on Nickel Concentrate Project

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has re-jigged the ongoing Feasibility Study work being undertaken on the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel project in northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals has been keeping a close watch on changes in nickel market conditions over the past few months, which has stemmed mainly from increasing supply from Indonesia resulting in the LME nickel price plummeting by over 36 per cent over the past year, from around US$25,000/t to recent lows below US$16,000/t.

Centaurus has taken the decision to reshape the current Feasibility Study – deferring the parts of the study relating to a fully integrated downstream nickel sulphate project to focus instead on completing the study based on an initial nickel concentrate-only project.

The company may consider development of a potential downstream refinery when market conditions improve.

Recent discussions the company has held with potential customers and strategic partners have indicated strong interest for Jaguar’s low-carbon, non-Indonesian supply of nickel sulphide concentrate product.

“The changes we have seen in the nickel space in recent months cannot be underestimated,” he said,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“While we think nickel prices have overshot on the downside and could rebound much quicker than some market forecasts suggest with supply growth now slowing significantly, we also want to be prudent and preserve maximum value and optionality for our shareholders while delivering an attractive, lower capital cost development route at Jaguar which demonstrates the quality of the project throughout the commodity price cycle.

“A lower CAPEX concentrate project, with lower technical risk and a lower cost of capital in the current market, delivers a better outcome for our shareholders.

“When we see the exceptional work being done by Ero Copper on its four million tonnes per annum copper concentrator at Tucumã, just 40km from Jaguar, we have a lot of confidence in what we should be able to deliver from a similar-sized concentrator at Jaguar.

“We remain convinced that Jaguar, which hosts Resources of nearly one million tonnes of contained nickel, is one of the top-3 nickel sulphide development projects globally, which we anticipate will become an increasingly important source of low carbon nickel supply, particularly for the Western EV battery industry.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Centaurus Metals Grabs Jaguar by the Tail

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COMMODITY CAPERS: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) received a boost for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in northern Brazil in the shape of selection as a Strategic Minerals Project by the Brazilian Federal Government.

The Strategic Minerals Policy is part of the Investment Partnership Program – PPI (Programa de Parcerias de Investimento), a new Brazil governmental initiative designed to support companies while developing their projects across the country.

The PPI program supports projects deemed as strategic mineral projects for Brazil.

According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Policy acknowledges a strategic priority dimension to the projects carefully selected by the Inter-ministerial Committee of Analysis of Strategic Minerals Projects – CTAPME, providing the titleholder with specialised governmental support for the development of their projects.

“The selection of the Jaguar Nickel Project as a strategic mineral project is further demonstration of the project’s global significance and its strategic importance to Brazil.” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said.

“We applaud the Brazil government for introducing such a strong initiative for mineral projects considered to be of strategic importance to the country.”

Centaurus Metals soon followed up the announcement by reporting new results from ongoing resource growth and development drilling at Jaguar, the results from which are expected to underpin further resource growth ahead of the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and maiden Ore Reserve estimate due for completion by the end of calendar 2022.

Centaurus acquired the Jaguar project in the western portion of the Carajás Mineral Province of Brazil from Vale in April 2020, since which time the company has defined a Mineral Resource Estimate totalling 80.6 million tonnes at 0.91 per cent nickel for 730,700 tonnes of contained nickel.

The MRE is expected to underpin mine optimisation and production profile studies to be undertaken throughout 2022 that will determine the optimal mine capacity for the development of the project.

Any expansion of the processing plant capacity and/or production profile is likely to have a material positive impact on the project economics and delivery of nickel-in-sulphate, which currently stands at 20 million tonnes per annum for 13 years.

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au
Web: www.centaurus.com.au
Directors: Didier Murcia, Darren Gordon, Bruno Scarpelli, Mark Hancock, Chris Banasik

 

Centaurus Metals Drilling in Brazil

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has commenced a high-impact Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project, located in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals is undertaking the drilling targeting new discoveries outside the project’s known resources.

The first RC drill-hole of the new program has been collared and is underway at the Leão prospect, marking the recommencement of a major greenfields exploration push that will see around 25,000 metres of drilling completed outside the known deposits over the coming months.

The company explained the new phase of greenfields exploration was designed to unlock new discoveries with the potential to add to what is already one of the largest and highest grade near-surface nickel sulphide resources in the world.

“We already have a resource of 58.9 million tonnes at 0.96 per cent nickel for more than 560,000 tonnes of contained nickel, which is one of the biggest undeveloped nickel sulphide resources globally, and we are confident that we can build on it given that the vast majority of the drilling to date has been focused within and around the known deposits,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Since acquiring the project, we have successfully grown the resource through highly-effective brownfields resource development and step-out drilling.

“Now with the arrival of the new RC rig, we can step beyond this brownfield focus and target completely new areas which we believe have outstanding discovery potential.

“The aggressive, RC exploration program will target shallow nickel sulphide targets that have the potential to be brought into the mine plan at an early stage.

“There are now more than 300 diamond drill holes into the Jaguar project but only 12 holes have been drilled outside the current deposits with known resources, leaving plenty of room to make new discoveries.

“We have already identified 10 high-priority greenfields nickel sulphide and PGE targets and we are very much looking forward to testing these in the weeks and months ahead.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au

 

Web: www.centaurus.com.au

 

Centaurus Metals Sets Up Next Stage of Jaguar Resource Growth

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals has made further inroads towards becoming a global nickel sulphide developer at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil.

Centaurus hit the market with the announcement of an updated JORC 2012-compliant Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 58.6 million tonnes at 0.95 per cent nickel for 557,800 tonnes of contained nickel for the Jaguar project.

“This reinforces the quality of the Jaguar project as a globally significant, near-surface nickel sulphide deposit with outstanding potential for continued growth,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said.

“It is also a fitting reward for the efforts of our exploration team, who have done a great job in advancing our drill programs.”

Broken down, the MRE update included a 50 per cent increase to the Indicated component of the Resource, which now sits at 19.9 million tonnes at 1.12 per cent nickel for 223,400 tonnes of contained nickel, with this Indicated component now representing 40 per cent of the global MRE.

Of note, the grade of the Indicated component is almost 20 per cent higher than the global MRE grade, demonstrating the quality of this higher geological confidence mineralisation to support early payback in any future mining operation at Jaguar.

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au

 

Web: www.centaurus.com.au

 

 

Centaurus Metals Waiting for Jaguar to Roar

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: A busy six months with the drill rig hass merely confirmed what Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has suspected for a while – that its evolving near-surface Jaguar nickel sulphide play in Brazil is a winner. By Mark Fraser

The company is currently in the process of completing two scoping studies for the project and is now hoping to make a decision-to-mine by 2023, with a 20,000 tonne-plus per annum nickel operation pencilled in to start by the end of the following year.

During the fortnight leading up to its appearance at the opening day of the RIU Explorers Conference in Western Australia, the WA-based junior announced it had significantly increased the indicated component of Jaguar’s Global Mineral Resource Estimate (GMRE) by over 50% to 223,400 contained tonnes of the base metal, a development which augurs well for the company’s first base case scoping document due next month.

The project – which is located in northern Brazil’s Carajas mineral province – now has a total GMRE of 58.6 million tonnes of ore grading 0.95 per cent nickel for 557,800 tonnes of contained nickel.

Importantly, the indicated component of this currently sits at 19.9 million tonnes at 1.12 per cent nickel for the aforementioned 223,400 tonnes, representing 40 per cent of the deposit’s GMRE, thanks to the junior’s in-fill diamond drilling campaign conducted over the past half year.

Significantly, the grade of this indicated material is almost 20% higher than the GMRE’s grade, demonstrating the project’s ability for early payback.

Furthermore, as more than 80% of the contained nickel in the global estimate sits within 200 metres from surface, all indications are that a large open pit will initially be established.

The February 2021 GMRE update is based on more than 74,500m of diamond drilling across 267 holes. This included an additional 49 diamond holes, for 8,150m, of predominantly infill drilling that was conducted since the company’s maiden JORC-compliant maiden global estimate was released in June last year.

The primary focus of this infill activity was to convert inferred resources to the indicated category within potential open pit limits.

This involved drilling on a 50 by 50m drill spacing (although there were times a closer spacing was used) at Jaguar South, Jaguar Central, Jaguar North and Onça Preta. Together, these ore bodies represent about 67% of the contained metal in the GMRE. All the core was diamond, while every hole was subjected to down-hole electromagnetic surveys.

According to Centaurus, this work correlated very well with the interpretation of the previous inferred resource. In addition to providing increasing control on the mineralised zones and grade distribution, the closer-spaced drilling also helped develop an important structural model.

The Jaguar Central and Jaguar South deposits are likely to deliver the bulk of the ore during the early years of any future operation and should underpin the project’s base line scoping due diligence.

Centaurus said Jaguar and Onça were unique in the nickel sulphide sector as the high grade mineralisation came to surface and remained open at depth. Significantly, more than 80% of the GMRE’s contained nickel is within 200m from surface.

During his appearance at the RIU show, Centaurus operations manager Roger Fitzhardinge said a second scoping study, which is set to be completed by April, would look at including pressure oxidation (POX) in Jaguar’s circuit.

“POX testing is demonstrating that we get good extraction,” he explained.

“The advantage of POX in producing the nickel metal is that you’ll get paid 100 per cent LME nickel price … which compared to the pay abilities that you might get for a nickel concentrate, which might be 72-75 per cent, is all in the bottom line, so it’s a very attractive case.”

 

 

Centaurus Metals Increases Jaguar Nickel Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) moved closer to becoming a nickel sulphide developer at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals announced an updated JORC 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 58.6 million tonnes at 0.95 per cent nickel for 557,800 tonnes of contained nickel.

Importantly, the Indicated component of the Global MRE has increased by over 50 per cent to 19.9 million tonnes at 1.12 per cent nickel for 223,400 tonnes of contained nickel, accounting for 40 per cent of the Jaguar Global MRE.

“In addition to achieving our primary goal of upgrading the Indicated Resource by 50 per cent, which has significantly de-risked the project ahead of the upcoming Scoping Study, we have also achieved a further increase in the global MRE,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“This reinforces the quality of the Jaguar project as a globally significant, near-surface nickel sulphide deposit with outstanding potential for continued growth.

“It is also a fitting reward for the efforts of our exploration team, who have done a great job in advancing our drill programs over the past six months.

“Importantly, around 80 per cent of the contained nickel tonnes are less than 200 metres from surface and we expect that pit optimisation and mine planning work will show that Jaguar has outstanding potential to be a low strip ratio, long life, open pit operation with strong economics, putting us in a great position to deliver on our aspiration to be a clean and efficient 20,000-plus tonne per annum nickel producer by the end of 2024.

“One of the other key messages for investors is that this is far from the end of the story in terms of the growth of our Resource inventory.

“We are continuing a major drilling effort with four rigs on site and further rigs to be added next quarter.

“Additional rigs will allow more step-out, extensional and greenfields drilling along with further resource development in-fill drilling, which has been the focus of the last six months.

“As we drill deeper and test more down-hole EM conductors – which have been very useful in identifying high-grade mineralisation to date – we expect to find further high-grade nickel mineralisation.

“We look forward to replicating the sort of widths and grades of mineralisation seen in the recent result from the Jaguar Central drill hole, JAG-DD-20-104, which intersected 30.8 metres at 3.3 per cent nickel with 12.1 metres at 5.38 per cent nickel, on a more regular basis as we drill deeper, as well as making new discoveries through our greenfields drilling.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au

 

Web: www.centaurus.com.au

 

Deposit Receives More Spring in its Step

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Emerging Latin American base metals player Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) couldn’t have finished 2020 on a better note after drilling one of the best ever holes at its Jaguar nickel suphide project in northern Brazil. By Mark Fraser

During the second half of December the company announced the drill rig had returned a robust 30.8 metres at 3.3% nickel, 0.22% copper and 0.06% cobalt from a depth of 180.7m at its Jaguar Central deposit, which has become a key element in the strong and early economics underpinning the project’s proposed development.

So far Centaurus has established a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate at Jaguar of 48 million tonnes grading 1.08% nickel for 517,500t of contained nickel – including 7.4 million tonnes at 1.13% nickel for more than 80,000t of contained nickel for Jaguar Central.

Meanwhile, a high grade resource of 20.6 million tonnes at 1.56% nickel for 321,400t of contained nickel includes a near-surface component at Jaguar Central of 4.1 million tonnes at 1.44% nickel for around 60,000t of contained nickel.

According to the company, the latest step-out hole was targeting a 30m zone of semi-massive to massive nickel sulphides. The above-mentioned 30.8m intercept – which included 12m at 2.31% nickel, 0.21% copper and 0.05% cobalt from 180.7m as well as 12.1m at 5.38% nickel, 0.31% copper and 0.09% cobalt (from 195.3m) – confirmed there were down-dip extensions to the high-grade nickel mineralisation shoot at Jaguar Central, which is now over 500m long and remains open at depth and along strike.

Further evidence that this demonstrated “the significant growth potential and upside at the deposit” was then provided when another step-out hole located 100m east intersected the top of the high grade shoot, returning 11m at 0.76% nickel, 0.03% copper and 0.02% cobalt (from 127m) and 20.2m at 1% nickel, 0.04% copper and 0.03% cobalt (from 153.3m).

In addition, Centaurus said, recent infill, extensional and step out drilling at Jaguar South also yielded consistent thick and shallow nickel sulphide intersections, including 20m at 1.4% nickel, 0.05% copper and 0.02% cobalt (from 161m) – with 4.7m at 2.18% nickel, 0.1% copper and 0.05% cobalt (from 161m) in addition to 4.2m at 3.42% nickel, 0.08% copper and 0.09% cobalt (from 172m) – as well as 17.2m at 1.19% nickel, 0.03% copper and 0.03% cobalt (from 162.6m), 11m at 1.21% nickel, 0.07% copper and 0.03% cobalt (from 89m), 9.6m at 1.04% nickel, 0.03% copper and 0.02% cobalt (from 81.5m) and 26.6m at 0.65% nickel, 0.02% copper and 0.01% cobalt (from 168.5m).

While encouraged by all of this good news, Centaurus’ managing director Darren Gordon said the 30.8m diamond hole intercept announced just before Christmas was, for the time being, the second-best nickel sulphide intersection drilled across the entire Jaguar project.

And while it “couldn’t quite pip” an earlier hole at Jaguar South which returned 34m at 3.31% nickel, it nevertheless was “another clear demonstration of the potential of this project to deliver thick zones of semi-massive to massive high-tenor nickel sulphides”.

“Importantly, this hole and other recent step-out holes are located well beyond the current mineral resource boundary, demonstrating the exceptional growth potential and upside the Jaguar project still has to offer as we continue to step out and drill deeper holes across the project area,” Gordon noted.

“Our recent drilling has confirmed the continuity of thick high-grade mineralisation at depth at Jaguar Central, with the growth of the deposit in this area having the potential to either drive down the depth of any future open pit or facilitate a quality start-up option for a future underground operation.

“Our recent drilling has also further enhanced our growing understanding of the potential economics of the Jaguar Central deposit. The in-fill and step-out drilling at Jaguar South is also going very well with results demonstrating the consistency of the mineralisation both along strike and down-dip.

“These results are all expected to contribute to an excellent outcome for the JORC mineral resource estimate upgrade planned for early in the first quarter of 2021.”

Located on the western side of the well-established Carajás Mineral Province in the Pará state of Brazil, Jaguar was discovered by Vale in 2007. Centaurus acquired the project in 2019 with over 55,000m of drilling already completed along with baseline metallurgical studies.

The company’s tenure in the region is over 100 square km incorporating Jaguar, which spans over a prospective strike of about 7 km.

The project sits on low population density farmland with only four key landowners.

The Pará state is a mining friendly jurisdiction and the Carajás region has established transport routes to port (road and rail), power infrastructure, a skilled mining workforce and access to key mining services.

A high voltage power substation is located at Vale’s Onça-Puma ferronickel plant 15 km to the north. Water is readily available in the area. Meanwhile, rail is accessible from the iron ore hub of Parauapebas.

Initial metallurgical testwork shows potential for around 82% nickel recoveries producing a 16% nickel concentrate for the Jaguar South and Onça Preta deposits.

Centaurus is aiming to generate a single flowsheet for all mineralised material to provide flexibility in co-treating ores from various deposits in the project.

More on the company’s progress will be provided at this year’s RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle during February.

Centaurus Metals Declares Maiden Resources at Jaguar

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) released a maiden JORC 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals declared the 48 million tonnes at 1.08 per cent nickel for 517,500 tonnes of contained nickel MRE to be an important step towards becoming a globally competitive nickel sulphide producing company.

The maiden MRE includes a large higher-grade component of 20.6 million tonnes grading 1.56 per cent nickel for 321,400 tonnes of contained nickel, forming the cornerstone of the company’s strategy to establish a high-grade, high-margin nickel sulphide project.

“This is a phenomenal starting point confirming Jaguar’s status as a new globally-significant nickel sulphide project,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With a maiden Resource containing more than 500,000 tonnes of nickel, this is already one of the largest near-surface undeveloped nickel sulphide projects in the world and, as a maiden JORC Resource number, we believe it is up there with some of the best initial JORC Resources ever published by an ASX-listed junior.

“Significantly, the Resource also includes a high-grade core grading 1.56 per cent nickel that contains more than 320,000 tonnes of nickel metal, providing an outstanding platform from which to commence scoping and development studies.

“Importantly, around 80 per cent of the nickel tonnes are less than 200 metres from surface, with strong potential to further expand the high-grade Resource through systematic extensional and step-out drilling of the known Jaguar and Onça Preta deposits, all of which remain open at depth.

“Our deepest hole to date extends to a depth of just 300 metres, which in a nickel sulphide context means we’ve only just scratched the surface.

“We also see significant regional potential, with additional drilling planned at the emerging Onça Rosa discovery and across numerous untested adjacent prospects.

“This highlights the potential to add more tonnes and grade to what is an already globally-significant nickel Resource.

“Our drill planning is being driven by DHEM and FLEM surveys, which have been extremely successful so far in targeting the semi-massive and massive sulphide zones.

“In-fill drilling is already in progress with a view to further lifting the proportion of higher-confidence Indicated Resources in the MRE.

“We will also now begin to step-out quite aggressively and test new areas to see how quickly we can add tonnes and potentially make new discoveries both along strike and at depth.

“This multipronged approach should ensure that we can continue to grow the resource as we advance this exceptional project towards development.

“We also expect to complete a Scoping Study and deliver a further Resource upgrade this year, providing shareholders with strong news flow over the coming months.”

 

TO READ THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN FULL: CLICK HERE

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au

Web: www.centaurus.com.au

 

Centaurus Metals Hits Thick Nickel Sulphide at Jaguar Central and North

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) recently completed diamond drilling at the Jaguar Central and Jaguar North deposits, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in the Carajás Mineral Province of Brazil.

Centaurus Metals reported the drilling had returned “outstanding” broad high-grade nickel sulphide intercepts from shallow depths.

Results from first two drill holes at Jaguar Central returned consistent thick and shallow high-grade nickel sulphide intersections, including:

JAG-DD-20-042
40.5m at 1.35 per cent nickel, 0.09 per cent copper and 0.03 per cent cobalt from 20m, including 12m at 1.95 per cent nickel, 0.15 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent cobalt from 38.5m

JAG-DD-20-047
2m at 4.57 per cent nickel, 0.11 per cent copper and 0.1 per cent cobalt from 41m and 67.3m at 1.2 per cent nickel, 0.08 per cent copper and 0.03 per cent cobalt from 67m, including 19m at 1.7 per cent nickel, 0.13 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent cobalt from 79.8m

The first three drill holes at Jaguar North also returned consistent thick and shallow high-grade nickel sulphide intersections, including:

JAG-DD-20-046
26.8m at 1.21 per cent nickel, 0.13 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent cobalt from 84.3m, including 10.8m at 2.1 per cent nickel, 0.15 per cent copper and 0.06 per cent cobalt from 84.3m

JAG-DD-20-048
12m at 1.81 per cent nickel, 0.44 per cent copper and 0.08 per cent cobalt from 79m, including 4.5m at 3.66 per cent nickel, 0.63 per cent copper and 0.17 per cent cobalt from 86.5m

JAG-DD-20-050
28.5m at 1.44 per cent nickel, 0.13 per cent copper and 0.05 per cent cobalt from 29.1m, including 3.6m at 3.55 per cent nickel, 0.49 per cent copper and 0.16 per cent cobalt from 50.7m

“It’s quite rare to see such consistent grades and widths across so many shallow deposits which would be amenable to extraction via open pit mining, before possibly moving underground in the future,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These important attributes put Jaguar in a league of its own as a nickel sulphide development proposition and reinforce why we see it as a company-making project.

“Importantly, these results also show that our targeting method has been very successful in allowing us to infill and often extend the high-grade zones delineated in previous wide-spaced drilling by Vale.

“This targeting method has proven to be successful at Jaguar South, Onça Preta and Onça Rosa and now we are having the same success at Jaguar Central and Jaguar North.

“The shallow zones of mineralisation delineated by this drilling and the historical Vale holes into Jaguar Central and Jaguar North will be incorporated in the upcoming maiden Mineral Resource estimate.

“In the meantime, we will continue to evaluate the deeper potential – which we think is just as exciting.

“Down-hole geophysics on the new drill holes has consistently identified strong conductor plates below the deepest drilling, indicating significant potential for more semi-massive to massive sulphides at depth.

“This potential will be systematically tested in the months ahead.

“With all of the drilling required to deliver our maiden Mineral Resource now complete, two rigs are continuing to operate at Jaguar Central and Jaguar North to test down-dip extensions of the deposits.

“Additionally, a regional field team has commenced mapping, soil sampling and FLEM survey work to generate a pipeline of new regional targets on the western portion of the land package which we will be aiming to start drilling in the next two to three months.”

 

Email: office@centaurus.com.au

Web: www.centaurus.com.au