Toronto-based Iamgold has completed preliminary studies at Aim-listed Stratex International’s 85%-owned Dalafin gold project, in Senegal, and will soon start a 5 750 m drilling programme at the project.
This follows the signing earlier this year of an $8-million earn-in agreement on Dalafin between Agem Senegal Exploration, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iamgold, and Stratex.
Under the terms of the agreement, Agem will earn an initial 51% interest in the project by expending $4-million on exploration over four years and has the further option to increase its interest to 70% by expending an additional $4-million over the subsequent two years.
The mobilisation of drilling equipment to site is nearing completion and Iamgold will shortly begin the 5 750 m air core (AC), reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core drilling programme at the Madina Bafé prospect, in the south of the Dalafin licence area.
"We are delighted to see the development of such a robust work programme and that Iamgold is moving ahead so quickly on the earn-in. We look forward to strong news flow on Dalafin over the coming months," Stratex CEO Tim Livesey said in a statement on Thursday.
Since signing the earn-in agreement in March, Iamgold has undertaken a review of existing diamond drill core and RC chip samples for Madina Bafé and has completed several traverses to assess the regolith across the prospect.
Observations from these traverses are currently being compiled and a final map produced.
Iamgold has completed line clearing at Madina Bafé ahead of commencing an initial 3 000 m AC drilling programme for 570 holes, on a 50 m by 200 m line spacing.
Samples collected at the bedrock interface will be analysed for multi-element geochemistry and low-level gold in order to assess the geochemical signature of the bedrock, help depict alteration corridors and mineralisation trends, and define targets for follow-up deeper drilling.
RC and diamond core drilling will test the depth and strike extension of the mineralisation and will take place after all targets have been assessed and ranked.