According to Craig MacDougall, the company’s executive VP of growth, the latest results “continue to highlight the importance of this new discovery and we are now starting to demonstrate the connection of the Gosselin and Young Shannon Zones outlining mineralization over a sizeable area.”
The Côté project is currently under construction, with first gold production expected in the second half of 2023
The gold producer is focusing its exploration efforts on defining the mineralized zone with an initial resource estimate for Gosselin expected later in 2020.
Drilling to date has traced mineralization at Gosselin and Young-Shannon over 1 km of strike, a width of 450 metres and to a vertical depth of 450 meters. This area is approximately 1.5 km northeast of the Côté deposit and below the Three Ducks Lake. It remains open – a winter diamond drill program has started on ice-based platforms. This year’s exploration budget for the area includes 14,500 metres of diamond drilling.
The 33-hole program was completed between the fourth quarter of 2019 and December 2020. The first batch of 24 assays “confirmed the continuity of broad gold-bearing mineralized intervals” at Gosselin. Overall, the drilling has traced widespread gold mineralization within intrusive units at grades similar to those at the main Cote deposit.
The Côté project is currently under construction, with first gold production expected in the second half of 2023. The 70-30 joint venture between Iamgold (the majority owner) and Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Mining is southwest of Timmins and north of Sudbury.
Once ramped up, Cote is expected to generate approximately 367,000 gold oz. annually at all-in sustaining costs of US$771 per oz. The latest capital cost estimate for the 36,000 t/d operation was at US$1.3 billion.
