Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has increased the total measured, indicated and inferred JORC resource at its Jambreiro Iron Ore Project in Brazil by 65% to 116.5 million tonnes grading 26.8% iron, laying the foundations for what is expected to be the company’s first iron ore project development.
The new resource provides the platform for the current Pre-Feasibility Study on Jambreiro, which is on track for completion in November 2011, based on an initial 2 million tonnes per annum operation.
Importantly, 62% of the overall Jambreiro resource base is now classified in the Measured and Indicated categories, providing a solid base for the upcoming Jambreiro JORC Ore Reserve.
A significant part of the increase in the resource base at Jambreiro has come from the South East Extension Zone, where drilling encountered a zone of mineralisation that dips sub-parallel to the natural surface and intersected a high proportion of friable mineralisation.
Centaurus will now aim to leverage off the positive aspects of this zone to assist in enhancing overall project economics through lower strip ratios and generally lower processing costs.
In addition, recent work has highlighted a significant improvement in the continuity of mineralisation of each of the satellite prospect areas, which have also made a strong contribution to the overall resource base, both in terms of tonnes and improved JORC classification.
The updated JORC resource comprises 67 million tonnes of friable mineralisation and 49.5 million tonnes of compact mineralisation.
Beneficiation testwork on resource grade mineralisation to date has demonstrated that both mineralisation types can be beneficiated to a high quality hematite product. This will range from a premium 67% iron product with less than 2% silica to the more economical 63% Fe product with less than 5% silica, at mass recoveries of 35% to 40%.
In addition, the beneficiated product from Jambreiro is expected to have very low phosphorus grades between 0.01% and 0.02% phosphorus and low alumina grades between 0.7% and 0.9% alumina.
Ore characterisation and beneficiation test work is ongoing for both mineralisation types, with both responding well to magnetic separation circuits, indicating the potential to provide operational and price flexibility.
Centaurus intends to undertake plant design at Jambreiro to tailor the iron and silica grades for individual customer requirements.
A 6-tonne sample of friable mineralisation is currently being tested in the planned process flowsheet and the results will assist in further confirming the product specifications for the domestic steel industry.
The Jambreiro Project has excellent access to existing local infrastructure and is well located approximately 140 kilometres from the city of Ipatinga, home to Usiminas’ existing 4.5Mtpa steel mill.
Arcelor Mittal also has major steel operations within the same general radius.