Corporation has provided update from ongoing exploration activities at the company’s 100%-owned Pitangui gold project located approximately 110 kilometres northwest of Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais State, Brazil.
The project comprises 180.3 square kilometres of exploration licenses covering the Archean Pitangui greenstone belt where an estimated inferred resource of 4.07 million tonnes grading 4.88 grams of gold per tonne for 0.64 million contained ounces was recently reported for the São Sebastião discovery (see news release dated April 9, 2014).
Assay results have been received for a further 27 diamond drillholes totalling 9,971 metres completed on the Pitangui project subsequent to the effective date of the maiden resource estimate described above. The 2014 diamond drilling program continues to confirm continuity of mineralization within the current São Sebastião resource area and has also returned significant intersections from projected strike and plunge extensions of known mineralized zones to expand the potential limits of the deposit.
The drilling highlights: Drillhole FJG-073: 4.9 metres grading 10.16 g/t gold, Drillhole FJG-075: 8.9 metres grading 5.83 g/t gold, Drillhole FJG-076: 6.3 metres grading 7.12 g/t gold: 13.3 metres grading 4.71 g/t gold, and Drillhole FJG-078: 7.5 metres grading 9.73 g/t gold; 4.5 metres grading 9.59 g/t gold.
Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for the company said as hoped, the infill delineation drilling program targeting the core area of the Biquinho Zone is confirming continuity of the zone and is intersecting good thicknesses of higher grade mineralization.
“In addition, the Pimentao Zone located approximately 120 metres below the Biquinho Zone, has also returned some encouraging results which have potential to expand the current resources,” MacDougall added.
Iamgold said gold mineralization at the Pitangui project is hosted by a series of parallel and complexly folded horizons of banded iron formation (‘BIF’) that are separated by mafic volcanic and minor sedimentary units within the lower greenstone belt stratigraphy.
“Within the iron formations, gold mineralization is associated with sulphide replacement of primary magnetite bands, characterized by the presence of pyrrhotite and lesser amounts of arsenopyrite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite,” the company said.
“Several active mining operations in the Brazilian Iron Quadrangle exploit gold deposits of a comparable age, host rock type and mineralization style. Examples include AngloGold Ashanti’s Cuiabá and Lamego deposits. These deposits typically comprise multiple mineralized shoots with high plunge to strike-length ratios, a result of complex structural controls on gold distribution.”
The company added that a significant proportion of the current São Sebastião resource estimate is derived from one shallowly plunging mineralized horizon (‘Biquinho Zone’). However, several of the assay results reported herein were returned from a structurally thickened section of the ‘Pimentao Zone’, such as the results for drill holes FJG-076, FJG-078 and FJG-081.
“The new high-grade intersections within the core area of the Biquinho zone as well as the discovery of new high-grade areas within the other known zones, such as Pimentao, are key to achieving significant resource growth on the Pitangui project, and are principal objectives of the 2014 exploration campaign.”
Iamgold revealed that the two drill rigs are currently in operation at the São Sebastião deposit with the objectives to: 1) increase the confidence in and expand the currently identified resources within the Biquinho Zone on a 50 x 50 metre infill drill program, and 2) extend the limits of the mineralization and identify additional higher-grade and structurally thickened shoots within the mineralized footprint.
“On the remainder of the Pitangui property, geochemical sampling and geophysical (including airborne electromagnetic) surveys are planned or are in progress with the objective to identify new target areas within the host BIF sequence. A third drill rig has been mobilized to site to commence testing priority exploration targets.”
