Vanstar Mining (VSR.V) has received and released additional assay results from the recently completed Nelligan drill program, funded by IAMgold (IMG.TO, IAG) as part of its commitment to bring the project towards feasibility study and a construction decision. The release contains the assay results of thirteen holes for a total of 4,260 meters drilled. That’s still less than half of the 9,534 meters completed as part of the infill and expansion drill program.
Most of the holes were infill drill holes, aiming to increase the confidence in the known mineralized areas as this should allow the joint venture partner to upgrade a significant percentage of the 3.2 million ounce inferred resource estimate into a measured and indicated resource. With for instance 111 meters containing 1.11 g/t gold and almost 87 meters containing 1.34 g/t gold, the infill drill program has delivered on its promise. You’ll notice the mineralization starts quite deep down-hole, but those obviously aren’t vertical holes and the real vertical depth of the encountered mineralization is quite a bit closer to surface.
While seeing the infill drill holes confirm the width and grades of the mineralization is an important development, the more interesting drill results were the assay results from holes 177, 178 and 180 which were drilled further west from the current resource. As you can see on the map at the top of this blog post, all three holes encountered mineralization with holes 178 and 180 yielding pretty interesting results.
That’s very encouraging as these were the first three step-out holes towards the west and as you can see there’s an additional six holes drilled at Renard West Vanstar still has to report assay results on. Should those holes (or at least some of the holes and more specifically 179 and 181 encounter the same type of mineralization, thickness and grades, there is a case to be made to further extend the in-pit resource towards the west. And keep in mind, for every additional block of 50 by 50 by 50 meters at 1 g/t gold, about 12,000 ounces of gold are added to the total resource. And hole 177 is located about 300 meters west from the pit shell so it should be relatively easy to define at least a few hundred thousand ounces there with just those few additional holes.
So while the positive results from the infill drill program are important, expanding the mineralized area towards the west is very intriguing as that could pave the way to bring the Nelligan project closer to a 5 million ounce resource. IAMgold is planning to release an updated resource estimate by the end of next year and that will obviously incorporate all the drilling since the 2019 resource was completed. We are also expecting a decent size winter 2022 drill program as the mineralized system remains open along strike and at depth and it would make sense for IAMgold to try to capture as much of this upside potential in the next resource update.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Vanstar Mining. Vanstar is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
