Key Environmental Licence Application and updated Mining Lease Application lodged and on schedule for approval in 2022.
Updated JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) confirms Jaguar as the world's premier near-surfacenickel sulphide development project, with the Jaguar Global MRE increasing by 30% to now contain an estimated (see Table 1):
GLOBAL: 80.6Mt @ 0.91% Ni for 730,700t of contained nickel
Importantly, the Indicated component of the Global MRE has increased to:
INDICATED: 43.4Mt @ 0.92% Ni for 397,000t of contained nickel
The Jaguar deposit starts at surface with more than 500,000t of the contained nickel within 200m of surface, making Jaguar an exceptional shallow, high-gradenickel sulphide growth and development opportunity - unique in the global landscape.
Step-outand extensional drilling has expanded the Resource beyond the May 2021 Jaguar Scoping Study open pit and underground designs limits which delivered 262,000t of nickel-in-sulphateat 20,000ktpa for 13 years1, highlighting the opportunity to increase the currently scoped production rate.
Mineralisation remains open both at depth and locally along strike, with significant potential to continue to increase the Mineral Resource and make new discoveries with further drilling.
Strong news flow to continue in the first half of 2022 with:
Eight diamond rigs drilling double-shiftand a further three new diamond rigs to arrive on site in February 2022;
DHEM and FLEM surveys continuing to drive resource step-out,extensional and exploration drilling; Ongoing results from detailed metallurgical testwork and broader DFS activities; and
Progression of planned Offtake Agreements for the nickel sulphate product to be produced at Jaguar.
JAGUAR MINERAL RESOURCE SOARS TO 80.6Mt @ 0.91% Ni FOR
730,700 TONNES OF CONTAINED NICKEL
only30% jump in resource inventory paves the way for a potential increase in the scoped nickel sulphate production rate; 11 diamond rigs set to be operating from February 2022 targeting further growth
13 December 2021
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
AND MEDIA RELEASE
use
personal
ForCTM
Centaurus Metals (ASX Code: ) is pleased to announce a further substantial increase in the Mineral Resource for its flagship 100%-ownedJaguar Nickel Project in north-eastern Brazil, confirming its status as the world's premier near-surfacenickel sulphide development project with class-leading GHG emission credentials.
1 Refer to the Value-Add Scoping Study released to the market on 31 May 2021 for full details of the Production Target and the material assumptions underlying
the Study. All the material assumptions underpinning the Production Target continue to apply and have not materially changed.
Australian Office
Centaurus Metals Limited
Level 2, 1 Ord Street
West Perth WA 6005
AUSTRALIA
Brazilian Office
|
ASX: CTM
|
Centaurus Brasil Mineração Ltda
|
ACN 009 468 099
|
Avenida Barão Homem de Melo, 4391
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office@centaurus.com.au
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Salas 606 e 607 - Estoril
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T: +61 8 6424 8420
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CEP: 30.494.275, Belo Horizonte MG
| |
BRAZIL
| |
Total
Inferred
43.4
1.0
36.3
37.2
80.6
Total Indicated
Transition Sulphide
Fresh Sulphide
Total Inferred
0.06
0.08
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.92
0.77
0.90
0.90
0.91
11,300
200
9,100
9,400
20,600
24,000
800
25,300
26,100
50,100
397,000
7,500
326,100
333,700
730,700
259 0.41
251 0.24
252 0.31
251 0.31
256 0.36
Classification*
Indicated
Ore Type
Transition Sulphide
Fresh Sulphide
Mt
0.9
42.4
Ni %
0.86
0.92
Cu %
0.07
0.06
Zn %
0.45
0.41
Ni
8,000
389,000
Grade
Co ppm
225
260
Contained Metal
Cu Co
600 200
23,400 11,000
Table 1 - The Jaguar JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) - December 2021
178,200
2,300
113,400
115,700
293,900
Zn
4,200
174,000
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
& MEDIA RELEASE
The increase confirms Jaguar as one of the largest nickel sulphide resources held by an ASX-listed company and the largest outside of the majors2.
The updated JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), comprising 80.6Mt @ 0.91% Ni for 730,700 tonnes of onlycontained nickel (Table 1), reflects the success of Centaurus' intensive resource in-fill, extensional and step-out
drilling programs completed during 2021 and further reinforces the Tier-1 potential of the Jaguar Project.
use* Within pit limits cut-off grade 0.3% Ni; below pit limits cut-off grade 0.7% Ni; Totals are rounded to reflect acceptable precision, subtotals may not reflect global totals. All oxide material is con idered as waste and therefore not reported as Resources.
The success of the in-fill resource development program has also resulted in an increase in the Indicated component of the Resource to 43.4Mt @ 0.92% Ni for 397,000t of contained nickel, representing 54% of the Global MRE.
It is expected that the Indicated component of the MRE, which will be available for conversion to Ore Reserves as personalp rt of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) due for completion next year, will continue to grow as further in-fill drilling is undertaken over the next six months. The Indicated Resource commences from surface and is
predominantly located within the open pit limits of the May 2021 Nickel Sulphate Scoping Study.
More than 500,000 tonnes of the contained nickel of the Global MRE lies within 200m of surface, representing +70% of the total contained metal. The mineralisation remains open down-dipat all deposits and locally along strike, with outstanding potential to continue strong resource growth driven by step-outand extensional drilling targeting DHEM conductor plates and greenfields drilling of the extensive regional exploration pipeline.
The total MRE at Jaguar has increased by 30% since the Scoping Study Resource Estimate was announced in March 2021 and more than 40% since the Company's maiden Resource was announced in June 2020.
Successful step-out and extensional drilling, together with recent exploration success, has delivered an exceptional 168,000 tonnes of additional contained nickel metal since the previous estimate in March 2021. In addition, Centaurus has added 213,000 tonnes of contained nickel since the Company's maiden Resource in June 2020 (see Figure 1 below), reflecting an impressive track record of defining new resources at the rate of ~140,000 tonnes of contained nickel per annum with sustained and focused drilling at Jaguar.
ForThe new, larger resource will underpin mine optimisation and production profile studies set to start in 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 20,000ktpa for 13 years.
The success of the Company's in-fill drilling strategy has further de-risked the Project by increasing confidence in the shallow open pit mineralisation that will underpin early payback in any future mining operation at Jaguar.
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2
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2
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See Figure 9 for Operating and Undeveloped ASX-listed nickel sulphide projects by size of contained nickel metal.
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Page
|
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"As part of the ongoing DFS activities, which are progressing well, we will now assess the option of increasing the plant production capacity above 2.7Mtpa as currently envisaged. Any expansion of the processing plant and the resulting production rate of nickel sulphate is expected to have a material positive impact on the project economics and could move Jaguar well inside the top-10of nickel sulphide producing mines globally.
"If we are able to maintain our current growth rate of 140kt of contained nickel per annum, we can realistically aim to grow the Resource to over 1 million tonnes of contained nickel by the time we are building the project in the second half of 2023. That would well and truly position it as a world-classproject. It is incredible to think that we will have a high-gradeopen pittable nickel sulphide project, located in a world-classmining province, with access to more than 80% renewable power and knocking on the door of operations to deliver high-margin,low GHG emission nickel.
"After acquiring the Project, drilling in 2020 focused on in-fillingand upgrading as much of the Resource as we could into the Indicated category so we could complete our Scoping Study. 2021 saw further in-filldrilling but with an additional focus on step-outand extensional drilling which has resulted in this further significant increase.
"Since our maiden JORC Resource in June of 2020 we have safely completed more than 50,000m of drilling despite the COVID-19pandemic and have successfully added more than 210,000t of contained nickel in resources at a rate of 140kt of contained nickel per annum - which is an outstanding achievement and a credit to the entire Centaurus team.
"The Jaguar Resource, which now stands at 80.6Mt @ 0.91% Ni for 730,700 tonnes of contained nickel, now hosts more contained nickel than the largest nickel sulphide deposit on the ASX not held by a major mining company. This exceptional result confirms our view that Jaguar is well on the way to becoming a world-classnickel mine with sector leading ESG and greenhouse gas emissions credentials.
Centaurus' Managing Director, Mr Darren Gordon, said the delivery of a 30% increase in the contained nickel as personalpart of this major Resource upgrade was an exceptional result which confirmed Jaguar as one of the most significant
new nickel sulphide projects to emerge globally over the past decade. For
use only
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
& MEDIA RELEASE
Figure 1 - The Jaguar JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) Growth - December 2021
Page 3
The December 2021 Global MRE uses a total of 398 diamond drill holes for a total of 104,509m, including 229 personaldiamond drill holes for a total of 47,917m completed by Centaurus since November 2019. An additional 6,358m of RC drilling (46 holes) was used primarily to underpin the maiden Tigre Deposit Mineral Resource, part of the Jaguar
Global MRE.
Resource development drilling in 2021 was focused on both in-filldrilling required to continue the conversion of Inferred Resources to Indicated within the planned open pit and underground limits that were derived in the Jaguar Nickel Sulphate Scoping Study (JNP-SS),as well as step-outdrilling below the pits and underground operations as identified in the study. Both drilling campaigns have been successful in growing the resources significantly.
To better reflect the reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction (MREEE), as described by the JORC Code (2012), the new Jaguar MRE has been reported within a pit shell using modifying factors determined in the Jaguar Value-AddScoping Study and metal prices of US$20,000/t Ni, US$44,000/t Co and US$2,900/t Zn.
Within the pit, a 0.3% Ni cut-offgrade has been maintained. A higher grade 0.7% Ni cut-offgrade has been used for resources below the pit shell reflective of the cut-offgrade that was determined for the underground operations developed in the Scoping Study. Detail of changes in contained nickel metal relative to the March 2021 MRE are shown in Figure 7.
ForThe new Resource delivered an estimated 80.6Mt @ 0.91% Ni for 730,700 tonnes of contained nickel and is a testament to the successful step-outand extensional drilling as well as the contribution from greenfields drilling.
Importantly, within the Jaguar Global MRE there is a significant high-gradecomponent of 22.4Mt grading 1.59% Ni for 354,800 tonnes of contained nickel metal, which has been estimated using a 1.0% nickel cut-offgrade across the total Mineral Resource (see Table 2).
The grade-tonnagecurve for the project is shown in Figure 8.
"This work will pave the way for a further Resource upgrade, targeted for Q3 2022, that will form the foundation of the Definitive Feasibility Study due for completion by the end of 2022."
"Jaguar has already shown that it can keep growing with focused drilling and we are positioning ourselves to maximise that growth as part of the current DFS. We have eight diamond rigs on site now and that will increase to 11 by early next year. That means we can look forward to strong exploration and development news-flowinto 2022 as we take the next key steps with this remarkable project.
"At the presently assessed level of 4.69 tonnes of CO2/tonne of nickel equivalent, the Jaguar Project will be one of the lowest carbon emission projects in the nickel industry.
onlyuseUpdated Mineral Resource Estimate
The Company's JORC 2012 MRE update has been completed by independent resource specialists Trepanier Pty Ltd.
"While Jaguar's strong economics lie at the heart of the Project, we also plan to deliver our nickel at class- leading levels of GHG emissions as a result of the relatively high-gradenature of the ore, the fact that 80% of the power in Brazil is generated from renewable sources (principally hydro and solar) and that the value- added nickel sulphate product is to be produced on site at Jaguar.
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
& MEDIA RELEASE
Page 4
personalThe resource category development has also been very successful with in-filldrill results underpinning an increase in Resources in the higher-confidenceIndicated category (Figure 2) and continuing to de-riskthe project ahead of the DFS, which is underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
The in-filldrilling continues to correlate 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 has also helped develop an important structural model for the Project, which bodes well for resource extension drilling and potential new discoveries.
Figure 2 - 3D view of the Jaguar and Onça Deposits showing Resource Categories, and new drilling shown in red For
onlyuse* Totals are rounded to reflect acceptable precision, subtotals may not reflect global totals.
Within the High-GradeMRE, around 65% of the contained nickel sits less than 200m from surface. This reinforces the key outcomes of the Scoping Study, where the near-surface high-graderesource allowed open pit operations to run at a higher nickel grade in the early years of mining to generate strong cash-flowsto support early capital payback.
Zn
296,300
293,900
283,800
264,300
246,000
208,400
176,900
149,400
124,400
104,600
87,900
74,700
Ni %
0.89
0.91
0.95
1.02
1.11
1.19
1.32
1.45
1.59
1.71
1.83
1.93
Zn %
0.36
0.36
0.38
0.40
0.43
0.45
0.49
0.53
0.56
0.57
0.58
0.59
Cu %
0.06
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.10
0.11
0.11
0.12
0.12
Ni
736,500
730,700
709,800
667,800
612,300
556,400
478,700
411,800
354,800
311,400
274,800
245,500
Tonnes
Mt
82.8
80.6
74.7
65.4
55.3
46.7
36.3
28.4
22.4
18.2
15.1
12.7
Grade
Co ppm
251
256
267
285
308
330
363
397
429
458
485
507
Metal Tonnes
Cu Co
50,600 20,800
50,100 20,600
48,800 19,900
46,000 18,700
44,600 17,900
38,800 15,400
33,200 13,200
28,300 11,300
23,900 9,600
20,600 8,400
17,700 7,300
15,300 6,400
Ni% Cut-offGrade
In-pitBelow pit
0.20.7
0.30.7
0.40.7
0.50.7
0.60.7
0.70.7
0.80.8
0.90.9
1.01.0
1.11.1
1.21.2
1.31.3
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
& MEDIA RELEASE
Table 2 - The Jaguar JORC Indicated and Inferred MRE at various Ni% Cut-OffGrades - February 2021
Page 5
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