IAMGOLD Corporation (IMG) has announced initial assay results from its 2021 exploration program at the Nelligan gold project.
Nelligan is a joint venture between IAMGOLD and Vanstar Mining Resources and is located 60 kilometres southwest of Chibougamau, Quebec.
The 2021 drill program consisted of 9,534 metres of drilling. Today’s results are from 13 diamond drill holes totalling 4,260 metres of drilling.
IAMGOLD and Vanstar designed the program to in-fill and delineate areas of the deposit to improve resource classification, and continued step-out drilling to confirm the extension of mineralization to the west along strike.
Mineralization has now been observed over a strike length of at least 1,500 metres and remains open along strike and at depth.
In the west extension of the Renard Zone, drilling intersected 15 metres grading 7.81 g/t gold.
Craig MacDougall, IAMGOLD’s executive vice president of growth, commented on the results.
“Importantly, our drill program continues to confirm the extension of mineralization along strike to the west—well beyond the area of the currently defined mineral resources,” he said. “This provides a significant opportunity to further increase the mineralized envelope of Nelligan, which remains a prime objective of our exploration program.”
IAMGOLD will use the results of 2021 exploration drilling to guide future drill programs.
The company and Vanstar are well into planning for the 2022 winter exploration program, which will test further the west extensions and expand the known resources in specific areas. An updated resource estimate is anticipated for the end of 2022.
As of December 2020, Nelligan contained inferred mineral resources of 97.0 million tonnes grading 1.02 g/t gold.
IAMGOLD is a mid-tier gold mining company operating in North America, South America, and West Africa.
The company’s operating mines include Essakane in Burkina Faso, Rosebel in Suriname, and Westwood in Canada.
Shares in IAMGOLD (IMG) are up 3.33 per cent, trading at $3.72 per share as of 3:09 pm EST.