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nIcKeL conFeRence ReVIeW

Jaguar poised for growth

hile seven diamond rigs are aggres- and 6.7m @ 2.09% from 255.4m) in July. the resource category up so that when
Wsively turning at Jaguar ahead of an More recently, the company struck 21m we deliver the DFS [in Q4 2022] that
imminent resource update, Centaurus @ 1.25% nickel from 367m (including 3m we’ve got all of this mineralisation com-
Metals Ltd is salivating over results from @ 5.56% from 369m) from the deepest ing across into reserves,” he said.
recent step-out drilling on its extensive step-out drilling completed to date at the “We’re also now stepping out and do-
nickel footprint in Brazil, including a new Jaguar South deposit. ing some of the deeper drilling which we
discovery only 4km from the proposed Speaking at the Australian Nickel Con- didn’t do in the first year of picking up the
ROM pad. ference, Centaurus managing director project. There was so much mineralisa-
Maiden regional drilling intersected Darren Gordon marvelled but was equal- tion close to the surface that we wanted
significant zones of nickel sulphide min- ly not surprised at what the drill rigs had to go and test. We’ve done that now and
eralisation at Tigre, the first of 11 promis- been able to deliver in recent months. got that into the resource. Now it’s about
ing greenfields prospects which Centau- “The diamond rigs are doing a lot of stepping out and showing that the miner-
rus plans to test over the coming months. the infill work to ensure that we can get alisation here has got legs.”
A diamond rig was subsequently mobi- Centaurus is looking to build on a “val-
lised to Tigre to validate RC visuals, with ue-added” scoping study which forecast
a 5.8m zone of stringer and net-textured NPV of $1.1 billion and IRR of 52% from
nickel sulphides (millerite and pentland- the production of 20,000 tpa recovered
ite) intersected in the very first hole. nickel-in-sulphate and 9,600 tpa mixed
Centaurus suggested the success at sulphide precipitate, based on a con-
Tigre had increased the prospectivity servative nickel price of $US7.50/lb plus
of the dacite-basement genesis contact a sulphate premium of $US0.50/lb.
which extends 700m to the east towards Annual free operating cash flow is
the next greenfields target at Dente de estimated at $US189 million following a
Sabre. capex of $US288 million for the 2.7 mtpa
It also provides the company with fur- nickel sulphate plant.
ther confidence it can extend the current “Fundamentally, we have a 13-year
13-year mine life for Jaguar. The exist- project right now, but we expect that the
ing 58.9mt @ 0.96% nickel for 562,600t mine life will grow as we drill further,”
resource which supports that production Gordon said.
profile is set to be upgraded before the “If we’re producing [circa] $US190 mil-
end of the year. lion free cash flow a year and we’re do-
Centaurus has continued to churn ing that over 15-20 years, I think we’re in
out one impressive drilling result after pretty good shape.”
another since returning a project-best
hit of 56.1m @ 2.05% nickel from 206m – Michael Washbourne
(including 17.6m @ 4.86% from 208m Darren Gordon

St George delivers at depth where a more significant amount of minerali-
sation will be discovered.”
Diamond drilling of the conductors at West
easoned nickel explorer St George Min- belt. However, it was the extent of that strike End and Investigators began last month fol-
Sing Ltd had a simple goal for 2021 and that convinced the company the system must lowing the completion of a seismic survey,
executive chairman John Prineas was only be deeper than what the drill bit was turning with results still pending at the time of print.
too happy to report to the Australian Nickel up. St George also continues to push ahead
Conference that his team had more than MAD199 intersected more than 11m of with plans for a scoping study on some of its
ticked the box. nickel-copper sulphide from 333.5m down- shallow but more advanced prospects, spe-
“The challenge was to find more miner- hole. It was the deepest and western-most cifically Stricklands and Cathedrals, with re-
alisation at depth, bigger accumulations, occurrence of massive sulphides discovered source drilling completed on the former and
and we’ve successfully delivered that result to date and confirmed that the large intrusive currently under way on the latter.
in 2021,” Prineas said via video link from his unit was fertile for nickel-copper sulphides at Canada-based Glencore subsidiary XPS
Sydney base. depth. has been engaged to assess the metallurgy
“We have a new discovery at depth, an St George also tasted success with its first and develop a processing flowsheet.
intrusive-style deposit. Typically, you will find step-out hole, intersecting massive nickel- Prineas said it was important for the com-
more mineralisation at depth. We’ve been copper sulphides at 125m down-plunge of pany to look at development options for the
drilling deeper holes and doing downhole EM MAD199. project while still accumulating the mineralisa-
surveys and we [had] a major discovery with “What we think we’re seeing is very signifi- tion within the belt.
MAD199.” cant potential for mineralisation in this loca- “These are small shallow deposits, high-
Owner of the Mt Alexander project about tion,” Prineas said. grade, which we think are amenable to
100km west of Leonora, St George has previ- “The presence of so many conductors tells some sort of profitable, high-margin opera-
ously made four shallow, high-grade discov- us this is going to be a very active part of the tion,” he said.
eries over a 5.5km strike of the Cathedrals mineral system at Cathedrals and potentially – Michael Washbourne

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