Centaurus secured Jaguar from Vale around five years ago with an historical resource of 315,000t.
It has been steadily growing the size and scale of its Jaguar, Onca and Tigre deposits ever since, adding around 165,000 tonnes per annum, with total resources now tipping the scales at 108Mt grading 0.87% for 938,500t of contained nickel.
It delivers Centaurus the sixth largest nickel sulphide resource held by an ASX-listed company, behind assets owned by BHP and OZ Minerals, and larger than Chalice Mining’s Julimar discovery.
Within Jaguar the measured and indicated resource comprises 730,000t, and a lot of that is expected to be converted to reserves as part of the definitive feasibility study that is due in mid-2023.
A final investment decision is planned for 2024, and first production in 2025.
Managing director Darren Gordon said more than 600,000t of metal sits within a US$22,000/t pit shell.
Nickel was trading around $24,700/t overnight.
Gordon said Jaguar was now confirmed as one of the world’s premier near-surface nickel sulphide development projects and sets Centaurus up to become a top-10 nickel sulphide miner globally.
He is confident it will crack 1Mt of nickel in 2023.
There is 431,800t at 1.51% within 100m of surface, which should allow for high nickel head grades during the project pay-back period.
While Jaguar was scoped as a 200,000tpa producer over 20 years, Centaurus is talking about a larger project to meet the world’s voracious demand for the key battery metal.
The deposits remain open at depth, and along plunge and strike.
The average drill hole depth to date is only 225m, and while few holes have been drilled below 500m, the deepest completed have ended in mineralisation.
Downhole EM targets defined to at least 800m, and modelling suggesting the mineralisation continues even deeper.
Further supporting the upside is the fact a recent step-out hole at Jaguar South returned 42.5m at 1.01% from 496m, while an infill hole at Jaguar North returned 4m at 9.22% Ni from 12m.
The cut-off for resource drilling was July, but there are around a dozen rigs on site, and Centaurus has subsequently made the Jaguar Northeast discovery that is outside the resource.
It has also started greenfields exploration within 30m of the planned plant.
Following a A$75 million raising earlier this year, which garnered support from the likes of Kerry Harmanis, Sprott Group, and Dundee Goodman Merchant Partner, Centaurus remains well funded and started the December quarter with $47 million cash.
Harmanis recently spent $1.9 million to boost his stake to 5.15%.
The top 20 shareholders control around 70% of Centaurus.
Argonaut analyst George Ross said the resource upgrade exceeded expectations and offered the company optionality over operational scale and life.
He maintained his speculative buy recommendation, and $1.87 price target.
