JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - ASX-listed Centaurus Metals has completed exploration drilling at its Serra Misteriosa gold project, in northern Brazil, and is mobilising exploration field teams to the Salobo West copper-gold project, in the Pará province, in northern Brazil.

The company announced Thursday that the first phase of the maiden drill programme at Serra Misteriosa had been completed, with nine holes drilled to date for a total of 2 450 m.

“Drilling indicates the presence of a large, shear-hosted hydrothermal system where multiple zones of weak gold mineralisation have been intersected along a strike length of some 1.6 km,” noted the company.

“While assays results from the first six holes are sub-economic grade (with best intersection to date of 6 m at 0.7 g/t gold including 2 m at 1.4 g/t gold), they are encouraging, and the company will now undertake a detailed structural geological review to help understand the structural controls on the mineralisation before undertaking further drilling.”

Centaurus MD Darren Gordon said the pause in drilling would provide the company with an opportunity to assess the geological and structural setting at Serra Misteriosa and to fully evaluate the context of the weak mineralisation intersected in the first six drill-holes.

“While we are dealing with a very large mineralised system at Serra Misteriosa, we need to re-evaluate our targeting approach to ensure that we are spending shareholders’ funds in the most prudent and effective manner,” said Gordon.

Centaurus is awaiting assay results for the final three holes, all of which intersected similar hydrothermal zones to those observed in the mineralised zones in the holes reported above. Results from the last three holes are expected by mid-September.

Centaurus said it was encouraged by these initial results and that it would now undertake a detailed structural geology review to determine structural controls on the mineralisation ahead of the next phase of exploration.

“The results to date indicate that there could be something quite significant at Serra Misteriosa, but we have to be pragmatic and manage our exploration costs to deliver greatest potential benefit for our shareholders,” said Gordon. 

“In the short term, this means putting the drilling on hold and bringing in two highly qualified consultants to help us understand what we have and assist in planning the next phases of work.”

Meanwhile, Centaurus has engaged the services of well-respected independent geological consultants, Grant “Rocky” Osborne and Dr Roberto Vizeu, to carry out a detailed assessment of the geological, geochemical and structural data at the Salobo West project. Vizeu, a lecturer at Pará University, has worked on many of the world-class projects in the Pará region, including the five-million-ounce Volta Grande gold project and Vale’s giant Salobo copper-gold mine.

“Centaurus is set to accelerate the mobilisation of the exploration team to the Salobo West copper-gold project in the coming weeks to start preparing for non-ground-disturbing field activities and to start non-ground-disturbing exploration activities,” noted the company.

Centaurus recently secured the grant of a key environmental licence for the Salobo West tenement, which is located just 12 km along strike from Vale’s world-class Salobo copper-gold mine.

“The pause in drilling also has the significant benefit of freeing up the majority of our field team to mobilise to the Salobo West project earlier than previously planned and to commence with exploration at this very exciting project area.

“We are very excited about getting on the ground at Salobo West and we will be updating the market further on our exploration programme there in the near future,” concluded Gordon.