TSX- and NYSE-listed gold mining company Iamgold has announced additional positive assay results from its delineation drilling programme at the Gosselin zone discovery, centred about 1.5 km northeast of the Côté gold construction project, in Ontario.

On March 8 Iamgold reported the results of the remaining nine diamond drill holes totalling 3 686 m as part of the resource delineation drilling programme completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the company is reporting the assay results from an additional 31 diamond drill holes totalling 11 735 m completed in 2021.

Drilling results to date confirm widespread gold mineralisation which has now been defined over a strike length of 1 400 m, width of 400 m and a depth extent of 425 m. The zone lies immediately northeast of the Côté Gold deposit outcropping below Three Ducks Lake, and remains open at depth, and along strike to the northeast and southeast.

"These additional drilling results continue to demonstrate the continuity and strength of this wide mineralised system. The Gosselin zone remains open to the northeast and southeast as well as at depth," said Iamgold growth executive VP Craig MacDougall.

The Gosselin zone discovery is located immediately northeast of the Côté deposit, and is accessible by construction roads on the developing mine property. Diamond drilling to date has delineated wide intervals of low-grade gold mineralisation extending from the Young-Shannon historical shaft in the west to the Gosselin zone in the east. This continuous zone of mineralisation is referred to as the Gosselin zone.

Drill holes were completed from land-based drill platforms on the north and south shores of Three Ducks Lake, and also on lake ice and barge-based platforms directly on Three Ducks Lake, Iamgold said.

The 2021 diamond drilling programme continued to in-fill and delineate the Gosselin zone at a nominal drill hole spacing of about 70 m, including the shallowest parts of the deposit under Three Ducks Lake and on the Young-Shannon peninsula.

Two of the completed drill holes were oriented in the opposite direction from the regular drill pattern to cross-cut the central part of the Gosselin zone, providing additional information on the central breccia core of the deposit.

Diamond drilling data collected from the programme, including oriented drill core, have been used in the creation of a robust geology model incorporating vein orientation and the observed associated structural controls. Results continue to demonstrate gold concentrations associated with two principal vein compositions, which have been modelled and used to underpin the deposit model to support the mineral resource estimate, the company said.

"I want to acknowledge the tremendous effort of our exploration team to safely complete this logistically challenging drilling campaign, as well as our core shack technicians who processed and prepared large numbers of core samples to facilitate a timely submission for analysis. Additionally, I want to acknowledge the support of our assay laboratory partner to expedite the assaying of the drill core samples allowing for their inclusion in the drilling database to support the completion of a maiden resource estimate, which we expect to release in the fourth quarter of 2021," said MacDougall.

The Gosselin delineation drilling programme is being undertaken as part of the Côté gold 70:30 joint venture between Iamgold, as the operator, and Sumitomo Metal Mining.