PERTH (miningweekly.com) – First production from the Jaguar nickel mine, in Brazil, is still being targeted for 2025, although late in the year, ASX-listed Centaurus Metals MD Darren Gordon told delegates at the Paydirt Nickel conference, in Perth.
Centaurus earlier this week flagged a delay to the completion of its definitive feasibility study on the project, which has been pushed back to mid-2023, rather than the end of March.
A final investment decision for the project was also pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2023, rather than the third quarter, after front-end engineering work was sufficiently advanced to place long-lead orders and once the second stage of the environmental approval process had been completed.
“There is a lot of work to do, but we feel pleased to have such a high-quality project,” Gordon told delegates.
A 2021 scoping study into the Jaguar project found that it could produce 275 600 t of nickel and would have an initial mine life of ten years. The scoping study estimated that the project would require a capital investment of $178-million, and would have life-of-mine C1 cash costs of $2.41/lb.
Gordon said on Thursday there was still significant exploration potential at Jaguar, with the company continuing exploration work in the region.
“[The drilling work] gives us a lot of confidence that this resource will ultimately push out to be over a million tons of contain nickel metal, which eventually will put us into that world class status,” he said.