NI 43-101 Technical report, Surface diamond drilling ... - Iamgold

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Item 13. DRILLING
13.1 Historical diamond drilling and statistics
The St-Honoré carbonatite complex is covered by a layer of Paleozoic sediment variable in
thickness. Historically, the REE zone could be studied with one outcrop located in the North-
East area of the core zone but the discovery showing was covered by a layer of overburden
moved during the mine operation. Diamond drilling is the best and the only method of
investigation used by IAMGOLD and the various site operators.
In 1967 the drilling program tested the new radiometric anomaly discovered. Few short hole
confirmed the anomalous REEs concentration in the ferrocarbonatite. In 1975, a preliminary
definition of the core zone (C1) was completed. In 1985, Soquem completed three long hole
to characterised and test the continuity at depth of the REEs zone. The compilation map,
show the historical drill holes location (Figure 14).
After a latency period of 26 years, IAMGOLD decided to launch a large diamond drilling
program stimulated by a favorable REEs economical context. In the last two years (2011 and
2012) 90% of the data on the REEs zone was collected.
Table 5: Historical diamond drilling on the REEs zone.
Company name
Year
Number
of Drill
Holes
Average
LENGTH
Longest
DH
LENGTH
Total
LENGTH
(metres)
% of
Total
LENGTH
SOQUEM 1968 5 141 226 706 1.7%
SOQUEM 1975 8 120 148 958 2.3%
SOQUEM 1978 2 336 443 672 1.6%
SOQUEM 1985 3 522 559 1,566 3.8%
IAMGOLD 2011 29 476 898 13,798 33.2%
IAMGOLD 2012 33 723 1,337 23,851 57.4%
Grand Total 80 519 1,337 41,551 100.0%
13.2 Drilling realized by IAMGOLD
Drilling was performed between March 6, 2011 and October 9, 2012 over the Niobec
property and specifically over the REEs zone. The first resource estimation (Lafleur, P.J. and
al., 2012)was calculate with the data of the surface holes 2011-REE-001 to 2011-REE-028,
and the underground hole S-3607.The program continued in 2012 with the realization of the
holes 2012-REE-029 to 2012-REE-061. The 33 new holes, for a total of 23, 851 metres,
were drilled under the supervision of Niobec geological team and are the object of this
present report.
The objectives were to define the geological model, upgrade the resource definition for a new
resource calculation and test the REE mineralization continuity at depth. The deeper holes
3400, chemin du Columbium, St-Honoré-de-Chicoutimi, QC G0V 1L0 Canada – tel. : 418 673-4694 Fax : 418 673-3179
E-mail : info.niobec@iamgold.com www.niobec.com