Alamos expands Island Gold with high-grade hits ahead of study release

Island Gold mine - Image courtesy of Alamos Gold

Alamos Gold has released exploration results from its Island Gold mine in Ontario, which extend high grade areas at the Island East and Main zones, as well as at Island West.

The majority of the notable intercepts in the latest release are from the E1E zone and confirm the vertical continuity of this area over up to 1.2 km, between depths of 300 metres and 1,500 metres.

Drilling at Island Main returned 10.3 metres of 52.1 g/t gold and 4.3 metres of 21.01 g/t gold up to 150 metres east of existing mineral reserves

Drill highlights from Island East Lower include 2.3 metres of 44.3 g/t gold and 4.9 metres of 29.05 g/t gold - Alamos continues to hit gold mineralization at E1E within a 120-metre-long gap between inferred resource portions, suggesting a 1.2-km vertical span of this zone in the eastern portion of the deposit.

At Island East Upper, notable new intercepts from E1E include 3.6 metres of 18.72 g/t gold and 2.2 metres of 21.3 g/t gold: these high-grade intervals are from an area that is 200 metres east of existing reserves.

Drilling at Island Main returned 10.3 metres of 52.1 g/t gold and 4.3 metres of 21.01 g/t gold up to 150 metres east of existing mineral reserves.

In addition, surface drilling at Island West returned 5.6 metres of 25.41 g/t gold from the C-zone, extending the gold mineralization by 70 metres from previous drilling.

Additional holes targeting potential new parallel zones returned 2.8 metres of 40.34 g/t gold and 8.6 metres of 3.9 g/t gold.

"Island Gold has seen exceptional growth over the last several years with the deposit doubling in size since we acquired it in 2017," John McCluskey, the company's president and CEO, said in a release.

"This growth has been incorporated into a Phase III Expansion study of the operation, which we will be releasing the details of later this week."

McCluskey added that these latest high-grade exploration results suggest both significant potential for reserve and resource growth at the site as well as upside to the Phase III Expansion scenario.

Four underground and three surface rigs are currently working at Island Gold, with a focus on near-mine resource definition.

Last year, Island Gold generated 150,400 gold oz. at mine-site all-in sustaining costs of $656 per oz. Proven and probable reserves for the site total 3.6 million tonnes at 10.37 g/t gold, containing 1.2 million gold oz. Cut-off grades are between 2.82 g/t gold and 4.89 g/t gold.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)