Continues To Extend Côté Gold Mineralised System In Ontario
IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) has released additional positive assay results from its delineation diamond drilling programme at the Gosselin zone discovery, centred approximately 1.5 km northeast of the Côté Gold construction project in Ontario.
The Gosselin delineation drilling programme is being undertaken as part of the Côté Gold 70:30 joint venture between IAMGOLD, as the operator, and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMM).
Côté Gold, located 175 km north of Sudbury, Ontario and 125 km southwest of Timmins, is currently under construction with commercial production anticipated in the second half of 2023.
In March 2021, IAMGOLD reported the results of the remaining nine diamond drill holes totalling 3,686mas part of the resource delineation drilling programme completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The latest assay results from an additional 31 diamond drill holes totalling 11,735m completed in 2021. Drill holes were completed from land-based drill platforms on the north and south shores of Three Ducks Lake, and also on lake ice and barge-based platforms directly on Three Ducks Lake.
The assay results include the following highlights:
• Drill hole GOS21-66: 242.0 metres grading 1.57 g/t Au, includes 154.0 metres grading 2.31 g/t Au, includes:32.9 metres grading 6.00 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-76:151.5 metres grading 1.25 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-80: 48.5 metres grading 7.83 g/t Au includes 3.5 metres grading 96.1 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-81: 430.5 metres grading 0.95 g/t Au, includes 274.2 metres grading 1.31 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-86:393.0 metres grading 1.41 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-88: 220.0 metres grading 1.25 g/t Au includes 96.0 metres grading 2.10 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-92: 304.3 metres grading 1.14 g/t Au
• Drill hole GOS21-93:350.0 metres grading 1.25 g/t Au includes: 177.0 metres grading 1.91 g/t Au
“These additional drilling results continue to demonstrate the continuity and strength of this wide mineralised system,” Craig MacDougall, Executive Vice President, Growth, said.
“The Gosselin zone remains open to the northeast and southeast as well as at depth. I want to acknowledge the tremendous effort of our exploration team to safely complete this logistically challenging drilling campaign, as well as our core shack technicians who processed and prepared large numbers of core samples to facilitate a timely submission for analysis.
“Additionally I want to acknowledge the support of our assay laboratory partner to expedite the assaying of the drill core samples allowing for their inclusion in the drilling database to support the completion of a maiden resource estimate, which we expect to release in the fourth quarter of 2021.”
The Gosselin zone discovery is located immediately northeast of the Côté Gold deposit, and is accessible by construction roads on the developing mine property. Diamond drilling to date has delineated wide intervals of low-grade Au mineralization extending from the Young-Shannon historical shaft in the west to the Gosselin zone in the east. This continuous zone of mineralization is herein referred to as the Gosselin zone.
The 2021 diamond drilling program continued to in-fill and delineate the Gosselin zone at a nominal drill hole spacing of approximately 70 metres, including the shallowest parts of the deposit under Three Ducks Lake and on the Young-Shannon peninsula. Two of the completed drill holes were oriented in the opposite direction from the regular drill pattern to cross-cut the central part of the Gosselin zone, providing additional information on the central breccia core of the deposit.
Diamond drilling data collected from this programme, including oriented drill core, have been used in the creation of a robust geology model incorporating vein orientation and the observed associated structural controls.
Results continue to demonstrate gold concentrations associated with two principal vein compositions, which have been modelled and used to underpin the deposit model to support the mineral resource estimate.
Drilling results to date confirm widespread Au mineralisation which has now been defined over a strike length of 1,400m width of 400m and a depth extent of 425m. The zone lies immediately northeast of the Côté Gold deposit outcropping below Three Ducks Lake, and remains open at depth, and along strike to the northeast and southeast.
Next Steps
The finalisation of the deposit model and supporting drill hole database, including QA / QC validations have been completed and is now being used to support an initial resource estimate for the Gosselin zone, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Drilling continues with additional in-fill drill holes in progress utilising one barge-based drill rig on Three Ducks Lake and two land-based drill rigs on Young-Shannon peninsula, with the programme expected to continue into late October of 2021.
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