IAMGOLD reports Astoria Target Area drilling results

The company is reporting assay results from 11 diamond drill holes, totalling 5950 m drilled on the Astoria area, located approximately 1 km east of the Lac Gamble Zone. Two 2 drill holes were abandoned or did not reach the target zone due to excessive deviation.

The assay results include the following highlights:

Astoria Area – Upper Piché Zone

• Drill hole AS-20-773A: 2 m grading 13.2 g/t gold (Au).
• Drill hole AS-20-775: 2.8 m grading 7.5 g/t Au.
  • Includes: 0.8 m grading 15 g/t Au.
• Drill hole AS-20-775W: 7.6 m grading 9.7 g/t Au.
  • Includes: 2 m grading 29.3 g/t Au.
    

Astoria Area – Lower Piché Zone

• Drill hole AS-17-669W: 2 m grading 7.6 g/t Au.
• Drill hole AS-20-772: 11.1 m grading 3.7 g/t Au.
  • Includes: 1 m grading 23.5 g/t Au.

Astoria Area – Main Zone

• Drill hole AS-20-772: 6.1 m grading 3.4 g/t Au.
  • Includes: 3 m grading 6.2 g/t Au.
• Drill hole AS-20-776: 14 m grading 3.4 g/t Au.
  • Includes: 7 m grading 5.6 g/t Au.

Craig MacDougall, Executive Vice President, Growth for IAMGOLD, stated: "The completion of this programme has provided important information to assess the potential of the historic Astoria deposit. The programme was conducted in accordance with well-established company-wide health and safety protocols to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results will be used to update our geological models and help guide our exploration programme to continue to assess the resource potential for this area. Drilling has now resumed at Lac Gamble and will include the completion of selected infill holes, as well as geotechnical drill holes to assess rock quality of the host rock units."

The objective of the Astoria area diamond drilling programme was to test selected priority targets proximal to the known mineralisation to evaluate for the presence and continuity of mineralised extensions with potential to outline a resource.

The programme successfully intersected the targeted sheared Cadillac-Piché corridor, which hosts several mineralised zones. At Astoria, mineralised zones are associated with alteration varying from several metres to greater than 10 m in width, hosted in the ultramafic rocks of the Piché Group, exhibiting variable carbonatisation, fuchsite, silicification, crosscut by a network of white quartz and brown tourmaline stockwork veins and breccias, which define the Upper and Lower Piché zones. Gold mineralisation occurs as small specks of visible free gold associated with minor sulfides in quartz-tourmaline veinlets.

A mineralised zone, referred to as the Main zone, is also observed at the contact with the sedimentary sequence bordering the south contact of the Piché Group and is characterised by grey quartz veinlets containing rare visible gold and up to 10% disseminated to narrow massive bands of Arsenopyrite adjacent to the veins. Occasionally similar mineralisation is also observed exclusively hosted in sediments and is referred to as the Footwall zone.

Next steps

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and local availability of drill rigs continues to impact the pace at which planned exploration activities are advanced. However, exploration drilling has resumed at the Rouyn Project and a 14 000 m diamond drilling programme is planned in 2021 to further delineate the Lac Gamble and Astoria zones. The programme will also include the evaluation of the resource potential of other selected targets, including in the Cinderella and Augmitto areas located further west of the Lac Gamble zone. Currently, a geotechnical drilling programme has commenced to assess rock quality of the host rock units at Lac Gamble.

The assay results from the drilling programmes will be integrated with the existing geological, geochemical and structural information to support the development and refinement of preliminary deposit models on the property to support a future potential maiden resource estimate.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/04032021/iamgold-reports-astoria-target-area-drilling-results/