Strong Results From Jaguar Pilot Plant Testwork Support Pathway To Battery-Grade Nickel Sulphate Product

Centaurus Metals (ASX Code: CTM, OTCQX: CTTZF) is pleased to provide an update on ongoing metallurgical (pilot plant) testwork, key personnel appointments and other key work streams being progressed as part of the ongoing Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in north-eastern Brazil.

 
• Comprehensive mineralogical testing and analysis of the Jaguar ore completed to support process flowsheet development.
• Extensive flotation testwork demonstrated over 94% sulphide nickel recovery to concentrate (equivalent total nickel recovery of 78% based on average head grade of current Mineral Resource Estimate), with over 800kg of high-quality concentrate produced to feed the Jaguar Pilot Plant.
• Pilot plant campaign is progressing well after initial delays due to unavailability of testing facilities at ALS Metallurgy in Perth, WA. Two of the four phases of work have now been completed with the third phase currently underway.
• Key results from the pilot work completed to date include:
  • High leach extraction of nickel at 98.6%.
  • Very efficient zinc/calcium recovery in solvent extraction (SX) circuit (D2EPHA). Over 99% of zinc and calcium extracted from the leach solution with minimal losses of nickel (0.8% nickel).
  • A high-purity zinc hydroxide product can be produced for sale to benefit overall project economics.
• Work to date continues to confirm the quality of the Jaguar Project and its potential to produce a battery- grade nickel sulphate product for the rapidly growing EV market.
• This is further supported by the significant endowment of the Jaguar deposit (JORC MRE: 938,000t of contained nickel with 730,000t of contained nickel in the Measured and Indicated categories).
• The pilot work will continue through to the end of April, with the flow-on impact being a delay in the completion of the process design for the refinery. In light of this, the DFS delivery date is scheduled towards the end of Q4 2023 and the Final Investment Decision (FID) has been scheduled for Q3 2024.
• Several key personnel appointments have been made to support the DFS delivery and future Front-End Engineering & Design (FEED) work, further strengthening Centaurus’ in-house team and bringing a wealth of experience in the resource sector in the critical areas of process engineering, metallurgy and project execution to the Group.
• Centaurus remains well-funded with approximately $34 million in cash at the end of the December Quarter.

Notwithstanding these excellent results, the delayed start to the pilot testwork program will see this program continue until the end of April, resulting in a delay to the important process flowsheet design for the refinery circuit. In light of this, the completion schedule for the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) has been revised to late Q4 2023, with a Final Investment Decision (FID) scheduled for Q3 2024.

Centaurus Metals Managing Director, Darren Gordon, said the results from the initial phases of the pilot plant testwork program were equal to or better than expectations, supporting the process design for the downstream refinery and validating the Company’s development strategy for the Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project.

“The results we have seen to date have reinforced our belief that Jaguar is a Tier-1 nickel project with a very low GHG profile that is ideally placed to deliver Class 1 nickel products into the rapidly growing EV-battery market.

“We are seeing very high levels of metal extraction from the refining of flotation concentrates in pilot testwork, with nickel extraction in the leach circuit of over 98%. With this we expect to see a very high nickel recovery from concentrate to sulphate once piloting work is complete.

“Efficient separation of zinc will further enhance the project economics at Jaguar from by-product revenue generation as it is likely that a zinc hydroxide product will be produced for delivery to the zinc smelter market. Further, Phase 3 of the pilot program – which is currently underway – is expected to produce a cobalt hydroxide product, further adding to the by-product revenue streams from Jaguar.

“The pilot program is in full swing and will now continue until the end of April, with results to be collated and fed into the final process flowsheet design for the refinery circuit. Given the scale and importance of this work, it is vital that we get this right to ensure we deliver the high quality project and product to the market as planned. The team has worked hard to reconfigure the overall DFS schedule, and our master schedule now shows a completion time of late Q4 2023 rather than mid-2023, pushing out the FID to Q3 2024.

“While delays are always regrettable, our primary focus is on maximising the long-term value of this exceptional asset for our shareholders and delivering a project that will successfully ramp up to full production and stand the test of time. The resource industry globally, including all of the consultants and service groups that support it, are currently working at capacity, and we have to be pragmatic about this, while also ensuring that we never compromise on the quality of work undertaken for this very important phase of the DFS for the sake of timelines. The team is confident that we can meet the revised timeline of late Q4.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome a number of important new additions to our team, as detailed in this announcement. The additional expertise and capability they bring will help to ensure that we maintain quality and achieve our targets.”

Metallurgy and Pilot Plant Testwork

Mineralogy

Centaurus has completed comprehensive testing and analysis of the mineralogy of the Jaguar Nickel Project as part of which 3km of core, drilled by Centaurus, was selected for mineralogical testing. The core was selected from geologically important areas across the entirety of the resource base of the Project, including Jaguar South, Jaguar Central, Jaguar West, Jaguar Central North, Jaguar North, Jaguar North-East, Onça Preta and Onça Rosa (see Table 1).

In addition to testing the geochemistry, 136 mineralogical composites were analysed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and optical mineralogy. The details of the origin of the core are illustrated in Table 1 while Figure 1 outlines the average sulphide mineralogy of the ore zones.

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