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Centaurus Metals (ASX Code: CTM, OTCQX: CTTZF), is pleased to advise that resource growth and development drilling at its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil continues to deliver outstanding results. The latest results are expected to underpin further growth in the Mineral Resource while also continuing to de-risk the Project with positive in-fill drilling results.
- Strong, high-grade results received from step-out drilling at the Onça Preta (OP) and Jaguar South (JS) deposits, with new assays including:
- 42.7m at 0.98% Ni from 511.7m; including 4.1m at 2.42% Ni from 542.9m in JAG-DD-22-462 (OP)
- 9.0m at 2.21% Ni from 599.0m in JAG-DD-22-460 (JS)
- 24.4m at 0.82% Ni from 507.6m; including 4.2m at 1.58% Ni from 517.4m in JAG-DD-22-507 (OP)
- 21.6m at 0.79% Ni from 511.4m in JAG-DD-22-464 (OP)
- 11.0m at 1.43% Ni from 574.0m; including 3.0m at 2.49% Ni from 582.0m in JAG-DD-22-487 (JS)
- 10.7m at 1.40% Ni from 478.0m; including 3.1m at 2.14% Ni from 478.0m in JAG-DD-22-515 (JS)
- 7.5m at 1.78% Ni from 460.0m; including 5.5m at 2.19% Ni from 460.8m in JAG-DD-22-515 (JS)
- 12.4m at 0.96% Ni from 605.4m; including 5.0m at 1.51% Ni from 607.6m in JAG-DD-22-462 (OP)
- 8.5m at 1.40% Ni from 557.3m in JAG-DD-22-462 (OP)
- Visuals and assay results from deeper drilling at Jaguar South confirm the continuity of high-grade mineralisation at depth, with excellent potential for further growth below the current Resource.
- Further significant results received from completed in-pit in-fill drilling across all deposits, demonstrating the continuity of the mineralisation within the current Mineral Resource model. New assay results include:
- 10.0m at 2.28% Ni from 105.0m; including 3.2m at 5.25% Ni from 109.9m in JAG-DD-22-404 (JC)
- 18.6m at 1.23% Ni from 246.0m; including 8.0m at 1.90% Ni from 251.0m in JAG-DD-22-486 (JS)
- 22.5m at 0.97% Ni from 207.0m; including 5.7m at 2.42% Ni from 217.8m in JAG-DD-22-486 (JS)
- 10.8m at 1.94% Ni from 145.1m; including 4.1m at 2.78% Ni from 145.1m in JAG-DD-22-501 (JNE)
- 24.0m at 0.98% Ni from 329.0m in JAG-DD-22-512 (JNE)
- 21.0m at 0.87% Ni from 22.0m in JAG-DD-22-536 (JNE)
- 30.0m at 0.67% Ni from 250.0m in JAG-DD-22-491 (JNE)
- 11.0m at 1.65% Ni from 121.0m in JAG-DD-22-404 (JC)
- 13.0m at 1.18% Ni from 187.0m in JAG-DD-22-539 (JN)
- 21.5m at 0.66% Ni from 35.0m; including 4.1m at 1.66% Ni from 41.2m in JAG-DD-22-510 (JS)
- The Jaguar November 2022 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), comprising 108.0Mt @ 0.87% Ni for 938,500 tonnes of contained nickel, is one of the largest nickel sulphide resources held by an ASX-listed company and the largest outside of the majors. A further MRE update is planned later this year.
Centaurus’ Managing Director, Mr Darren Gordon, said that the outstanding results received from resource growth and development drilling were consistent with the Company’s two-pronged strategy of continuing to grow and upgrade the Resource in parallel with key de-risking steps associated with in-fill drilling and the completion of the ongoing Definitive Feasibility.
“In November 2022 we updated our MRE to 108.0Mt @ 0.87% Ni for 938,500 tonnes of contained nickel, confirming Jaguar as one of the largest undeveloped nickel sulphide deposits globally. That Resource is already in the hands of the mining engineers and will underpin the DFS that will focus on a long-life project delivering +20,000tpa of nickel- in-sulphate for the rapidly growing global battery-EV industry.
“The development drilling that we are progressing continues to build confidence in the Resource in and around these open pits, and will also go a long way to continuing to de-risk the project beyond the DFS. At the same time, we will continue to grow the project in a systematic manner through targeted step-out and extensional drilling that is expected to push the resource beyond 1 million tonnes of contained nickel metal in 2023.
“Importantly, the recent deep drilling results from the Jaguar South and Onca Preta Deposits are well below the MRE limits and previous Scoping Study stope optimisations.
“Jaguar is shaping up as a Tier-1 supplier of nickel-in-sulphide and it is clear to us that the demand for nickel sulphate is growing rapidly as auto-makers increasingly focus on where they are going to source their nickel from and what the emissions footprint looks like for the nickel that is essential to their accelerating EV roll-out.”
Resource Growth – Step-out Drilling
The diamond rigs at Jaguar are now targeting resource growth by undertaking both step-out drilling and extensional drilling across all deposits, but with an initial focus on the high-grade Onça Preta and Jaguar South Deposits. These rigs will also continue to undertake important drilling for geotechnical, metallurgical and structural interpretation purposes.
The Company is in the process of optimising its contractor drill fleet, removing underperforming rigs and reducing the total number of rigs on site to six diamond rigs and one Reverse Circulation (RC) rig.
The May 2021 Jaguar Scoping Study demonstrated that both the Jaguar South and Onça Preta Deposits can sustain quality underground operations with the study stope optimisations bottoming out on the base of the January 2021 MRE.
The continual extension of the high-grade mineralisation, as demonstrated by recent drill results, both down-dip and now along strike at both deposits bodes well for continued resource growth and in turn future underground operations.
Jaguar South
The Jaguar South Deposit is the largest deposit at the Jaguar Project, hosting an MRE of 34.6Mt at 0.92% Ni for more than 316kt of contained nickel. The base of the November 2022 MRE continues to be constrained by the depth of drilling and ongoing step-out drilling continues to confirm that the mineralisation remains open at depth and along the +800m strike length of the deposit in both directions (see Figure 2 and Figure 3).
The deepest hole that the Company has completed to date on the Project, JAG-DD-22-4451 on section 478300mE, reached a final depth of 771m depth. Importantly, this hole successfully intersected a 10m thick zone of semi- massive and massive nickel sulphide mineralisation from 612m depth within a broader 20m intersection.
The intersection is 100m down-dip from the previously deepest hole on section JAG-DD-22-223 (16.4m at 1.34% Ni). Refer to Figure 1, Figure 11 and Table 2 for photos of the core and visual estimates of hole JAG-DD-22-445.
Figure 1 – The Jaguar South Deposit: Core photo from drill-hole JAG-DD-22-445; 612.7m to 622.2m down-hole: Stringer, semi-massive and massive sulphides (dark metallic bronze) mineralisation with dacite host rock.
Drill-hole JAG-DD-22-487, the second deepest hole completed on the Project, was collared 90m to the east of JAG- DD-22-445 on section 478390mE and intersected 11.0m at 1.43 % Ni from 574.0m including 3.0m at 2.49% Ni amongst other intersections (Figure 2).
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This article includes content from Centurus Metals, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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