Centaurus Metals (ASX:CTM) seems to be keen on capitalizing on the high iron ore prices on the world market, as the company is currently anticipating to publish a new pre-feasibility study on its Jambreiro iron ore project in Brazil, where it will focus on a 1 million tonne per year operation.
Although Centaurus already completed a feasibility study using the same production rate, the lower iron ore prices disrupted the company’s plans to effectively develop the mine, and the updated pre-feasibility study will be a first step to figure out if the updated economics at Jambreiro would make sense right now, but Centaurus should be focusing on keeping the initial capex low, and to maximize the revenue per produced tonne of iron ore as the company’s original plan to sell the iron ore on a ‘mine gate’ basis may not be the best option going forward.
As iron ore mines are a ‘hot topic’ in Brazil right now after several tailings dam failures, Centaurus’ PFS will investigate the option to use dry-stack tailings which are far less riskier than the usual tailings dam designs that have been used in the country. This pre-feasibility study should be completed by the end of this month, and we are looking forward to see the results as these smaller projects could act as ‘swing producers’ to mitigate the impact of production suspensions elsewhere. With a concentrate containing a grade of 65% Fe, Centaurus’ product should be well-sought after in this market.
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