IAMGOLD Corporation announced additional results from its 2019 winter diamond drilling program completed at the Rouyn Gold project optioned from Yorbeau Resources Inc. , located 4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and approximately 45 kilometers southwest of our Westwood operation. The Company is reporting assay results from an additional 21 diamond drill holes, totaling 6,181 metres. Results were previously reported for 10 diamond drill holes totaling 2,257 metres . Results are pending from the remaining 17 drill holes, totaling 4,962 metres, and will be reported once they are received, validated and compiled.
The objective of the 2019 winter diamond drilling program was to infill a portion of the Lac Gamble zone previously drilled by Yorbeau and various joint venture partners. The program was designed to achieve an approximate 50 x 50 metres drill hole spacing pattern to ultimately support the completion of a mineral resource estimate. The completed drill holes successfully intersected the targeted sheared Cadillac-Piché corridor which hosts the mineralized zone. The zone is characterized by alteration observed to vary from several metres to greater than ten metres in width, exhibiting variable carbonatization, fuchsite, silicification, crosscut by a network of white quartz and brown tourmaline stockwork veins and breccias. Gold mineralization occurs as small specks of visible free gold associated with minor sulphides in quartz-tourmaline veinlets.
Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD, stated: “The 2019 delineation drilling program continues to deliver positive results from the Lac Gamble zone. As mentioned before, our involvement in the newly optioned Rouyn Gold Project was based on the potential to rapidly delineate mineral resources along the targeted Cadillac Break, which could be evaluated as potential satellite deposits for our Westwood operation. Once the remaining assay results are in hand, the exploration team will work to develop a preliminary deposit model to support a future initial resource estimate.”
About the Rouyn Gold Project
The Rouyn Gold Property is located about 4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. With a long history of mining, the city of Rouyn-Noranda offers many advantages for mining and exploration, including political and social stability, good access and infrastructure, skilled mining personnel, and one of the most mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world.
The property covers a 12-kilometre stretch of the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break and contains four known gold deposits along the 6-km Augmitto-Astoria corridor situated on the western portion of the property. Two of the four deposits, Astoria and Augmitto, benefit from established underground infrastructure and have been the subject of technical reports that include resource estimates that were previously filed in accordance with Regulation NI 43-101.
The Lac Gamble zone is located between the Augmito and the Astoria deposits. The exploration target potential at Lac Gamble is interpreted to be between 400,000 and 600,000 ounces of gold at a grade between 7.0 and 8.5 g/t Au. The potential quantity and grade of the exploration targets referred to are conceptual in nature and insufficient exploration work has been completed to define a mineral resource. The property may require significant future exploration to advance to a resource stage and there can be no certainty that the exploration target will result in a mineral resource being delineated. The exploration targets are consistent with similar deposits in the area, deposit models or derived from initial drilling results.
IAMGOLD signed a definitive option agreement in December 2018, whereby IAMGOLD has the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Project by making scheduled cash payments totaling C$4 million and completing exploration expenditures totaling C$9 million over a four year period. Exploration programs must include the completion of a minimum of 20,000 metres of diamond drilling within the first two-years of the option. By the end of the expenditure period, the Company must complete a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, after which the Company, at its election, can purchase a 100% interest in the Project, subject to a 2% net smelter return production royalty, by paying Yorbeau the lesser of C$15 per resource ounce or C$30 million.
Half-core samples are packaged and transported in sealed bags to AGAT laboratories in Val d’Or, Quebec, and Mississauga, Ontario. Samples are coarse crushed to a -10 mesh and then a 1,000 gram split is pulverized to 95% passing -150 mesh. AGAT prepare analytical pulps at their facilities located in Val-d’Or and processed the pulps at their Mississauga laboratory which is ISO / IEC 17025:2005 certified by the Standards Council of Canada. Samples are analyzed using a standard fire assay with a 50 gram charge with an Atomic Absorption (AA) finish. For samples that return assay values over 3.0 grams per tonne, another pulp is taken and fire assayed with a gravimetric finish. Core samples showing visible gold or samples which have returned values greater than 10.0 grams per tonne are processed with a protocol involving fine grinding of the entire sample, followed by metallic screen analysis of the entire pulverized material. Insertion of duplicate, blanks and certified reference standards in the sample sequence is done in all drill holes for quality control.