Centurion Minerals Ltd., Vancouver, said on June 25 that its operating partner, Demetra Fertilizantes SA, has received new purchase orders for 2,000 mt of agri-gypsum material to be delivered from the Ana Sofia, Argentina, project to an Argentine distributor. The orders consist of both a premium granular and powder material.
The company said it has sold and shipped approximately 500 mt of agri-gypsum material during first-half June. It said this material has been primarily a blended powder consisting mostly of inventory that was abandoned by a previous operator of one of the Ana Sofia concessions.
“Our operating team has been very successful in generating sales from this blended material that cost us very little to prepare, is generating a good margin, and has led to additional purchase orders of premium grade materials,” said David Tafel, Centurion CEO. “Our near-term objective is to continue to scale-up operations to reach the processing plant’s design capacity.”
Centurion said its Ana Sofia agri-gypsum mine and processing facility have a current design capacity of 4,000 mt/m. Gypsum is extracted from near-surface, flat-lying beds within the sedimentary formation that extends throughout the property, located in Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina. The gypsum rock is fed into primary and secondary crushers, then screened and sorted into two agri-gypsum fertilizer products. The plant is designed to produce a pellet-sized granular product and a fine powder product (comprised of a minimum 85 percent gypsum content) that are each packaged into one mt tote bags.
Centurion said the project comprises two mining concessions totaling 50 hectares in size within a larger (approximately 600 ha) exploration permit area. The company reports that an initial inferred gypsum resource for the project was estimated as of 2016 to comprise 1.47 million mt averaging 94.1 percent gypsum, using an 85 percent cut-off grade that is the minimum required gypsum content for commercial-quality agricultural gypsum products in Argentina.