Iamgold makes new high-grade discovery in West Africa

The Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso. (Image from Iamgold)

Iamgold Corp. (TSX: IMG) has made a new grassroots discovery at its Karita project in northeastern Guinea, the Canadian gold miner announced Wednesday. The discovery is located between the company’s Boto project in Senegal to the north and its Diakha-Siribaya project in Mali to the south.

The Karita project is held under an exploration permit that covers nearly 100 square kilometres

The company has received assay results from 16 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes totaling 1,839 metres completed as part of its 2019 exploration program. Highlights include: 21.0 metres grading 9.01 g/t Au, 29.0 metres grading 2.96 g/t Au and 16.0 metres grading 3.17 g/t Au.

The drill results confirmed the presence of multiple zones of wide intervals of mineralization hosted within an albite, hematite, carbonate altered sandstone meta-sedimentary unit. The company said that the style of the mineralization and associated alteration appeared similar to its other deposits in the region.

“As with our previous discoveries . . . we have intersected multiple, wide zones of mineralization within altered meta-sedimentary units. With now our third grassroots discovery, we continue to highlight the outstanding exploration potential along this portion of the shear zone,” commented Iamgold senior VP exploration Craig MacDougall.

The Karita project is held under an exploration permit that covers approximately 99.85 square kilometres, located in the Birimian aged Kédougou-Kéniéba inlier of the West African Craton region along the Senegal-Mali border.

Iamgold plans to integrate the latest results with data from the adjacent Boto and Diakha-Siribaya projects to help guide future drilling programs, with an objective to define the extents of the mineralization and evaluate the resource potential.