IMG guidance for 2009..
The company also notes that it is planning greenfields exploration expenditures for 2009 of $34 million, of which $2.5 million is expected to be capitalized. This compares with approximately $35 million spent in 2008. IAMGOLD's exploration is focused in a few key areas, namely West Africa, the Guyana Shield of South America, and in the Andes and Brazil regions of South America.
"We now have a number of quality development stage projects in the pipeline towards production. Westwood in Quebec will be advanced significantly in 2009 after continued positive results and we anticipate that Quimsacocha will be able to move forward towards feasibility with the recent positive steps on Ecuador's new Mining Law. In addition, our pending acquisition of the Essakane project in West Africa provides another large scale project and is expected to be in production by the latter half of 2010," says Conway