Mining

Centaurus Metals hits shallow, thick nickel sulphide mineralisation at Brazil project

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By Robin Bromby - 
Centaurus Metals ASX CTM diamond drilling Jaguar Central North Brazil nickel

At Jaguar Central, Centaurus Metals’ intercepted 67.3m at 1.20% nickel from 67m.

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Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) is reporting what it calls “exceptional” results from its Jaguar Central and Jaguar North nickel sulphide deposits, which make up the advanced Jaguar project in Brazil.

The intercepts include 67.3m at 1.20% nickel (from 67m) and 40.5m at 1.35% (from 20m).

Centaurus claims, with all the assays now received, these delineate consistent, near surface mineralisation.

A maiden JORC-compliant resource is expected to be released later this month.

Centaurus completed the acquisition of Jaguar project in April from global mining giant Vale, with the project located within Brazil’s Carajás nickel province.

Jaguar came with a non-JORC resource of 40.4Mt at 0.78% nickel for 315,000 tonnes of contained nickel.

Both the Jaguar Central and Jaguar North deposits extend over a strike length of more than 400m with the high-grade mineralisation remaining open in both directions and down dip.

Other assays received from initial drilling include 26.8m at 1.21% nickel and 12m at 1.81% nickel.

Final results from the recent Jaguar South drilling program have extended the mineralisation 100m to the west, again with that mineralisation remaining open in both directions and down dip.

Maiden resource will include historic Vale drilling results

Managing director Darren Gordon said the “exceptional” new results clearly demonstrate the quality and scale of the Jaguar project.

“It’s quite rare to see such consistent grades and widths across so many shallow deposits,” he added.

The shallow nature of the deposits are believed amenable to open pit mining, before possibly moving underground in the future.

“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.”

These new drilling results from Jaguar Central and Jaguar South will be included — together with historical Vales results from that company’s drilling of the projects — in the extensive drilling database that will underpin the upcoming maiden JORC resource statement.

Centaurus plans to target high-grade areas

The Jaguar nickel sulphide project is located in the western portion of the Carajas nickel province.

Vale’s plan was for bulk mining the disseminated mineralisation.

By comparison, Centaurus is pursuing a smaller-scale, higher-grade development opportunity, with recent drilling focused on the delivery of a high-grade resource model.

Rigs are continuing to operate at the Central and North deposits to test down dip extensions.

Additionally, a field team has begun mapping, soil sampling and fixed loop electromagnetics to generate additional targets on the western portion of the land package.

Centaurus also holds the Jambreiro iron ore project, where a July 2019 prefeasibility study confirmed low costs and strong economics for a 1Mt per year mining operation.