Centaurus Metals (ASX Code: CTM) has begun the next stage of its iron ore export strategy with the start of maiden drilling at its wholly owned Serra da Lontra Iron Ore Project, located 140 kilometres from the export port of Ilhéus in Bahia, Brazil.
With the port of Ilhéus being just 140 kilometres away by sealed highway, the Serra da Lontra Project offers good logistics for the development of a 1-2 million tonne per annum export project.
The Serra da Lontra Project currently has an exploration target of 30-50 million tonnes at 35-45% of itabirite, with Centaurus aiming for a maiden JORC Resource estimate by May.
Centaurus has identified over 2.3 kilometres of itabirite outcrop at the Fittipaldi and Senna prospects, with ground magnetic survey results suggesting there is potential for a further kilometre of strike.
Two diamond rigs are now onsite and drilling ahead, while a reverse circulation rig is due to arrive on site and begin drilling before the end of January.
Drilling has begun at the Fittipaldi Prospect, which outcrops as a continuous 1.1 kilometre long ridge with estimated true widths of itabirite mineralisation of between 30 and 40 metres.
A large magnetic anomaly immediately to the west of the ridge will also be tested.
On completion of drilling at the Fittipaldi Prospect in February, the rigs will move to the Senna Prospect, which is located on a higher ridge 1.2 kilometres southwest of the Fittipaldi Prospect.
At the Senna Prospect, itabirite outcrop has been mapped over 1.2 kilometres of strike but the recent ground magnetics indicate that the anomaly extends for a further 800 metres.
The itabirite mineralisation has an estimated true width of between 40 and 55 metres.
The initial drill program of 7,500 metres should deliver first assay results by early March with the entire drill program expected to be completed by the end of April.
The start of drilling follows preliminary work undertaken last year including collection of bulk outcrop samples during an initial mapping and sampling program.
Beneficiation testwork is now underway on these samples and Centaurus is confident the itabirite mineralisation will beneficiate to a high grade (+65%) hematite product.
The Serra da Lontra Project, which Centaurus acquired last year, is currently the lead project in its planned iron ore export business. The company now has 13 granted exploration licences for a total of 17 square kilometres.