PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore developer Centaurus Metals has pushed back the development schedule of its flagship Jambreiro project, in Brazil, from the end of 2013 to mid-2014.

ASX-listed Centaurus said on Tuesday that it had revised its timeline for development to accommodate ongoing negotiations for product offtake with potential customers in the Brazilian domestic steel industry.

The offtake agreements offered the opportunity to establish a life-of-mine contract for the iron-ore concentrates to be produced at Jambreiro.

“For any steel mill customer in south-eastern Brazil, a new life-of-mine offtake will require them to progressively alter their contracted sinter feed sources. The implementation of this operational redirection by the steel mill will require additional time, as will the need for both parties to carefully establish the terms of the contracts, in order to deliver strong mutual benefit,” Centaurus MD Darren Gordon said.

He noted that the prospect of a life-of-mine sales contract was a very exciting development for the project, noting that the benefits of securing a strong offtake partner for the project outweighed the six-month delay in delivering first concentrate.

“The extra time in the schedule will also now be used proactively to enhance the detailed plan design and execution planning, which will ultimately deliver strong benefits to shareholders,” Gordon said.

The revised schedule would allow for the completion of a full detailed engineering of the three-stage spirals circuit, a full integration into the mine plan, the completion of the tendering process for additional equipment and the incorporation of the spirals into the overall project execution plan.

Meanwhile, Gordon noted that Centaurus remained in regular contact with its preferred project financiers on the progress of the offtake negotiations, adding that this would allow the company to move quickly through the financing process, once offtake arrangements were completed.