Estimates in for Siribaya gold project in Mali

Resource estimates are in for a deposit that is part of a joint venture gold mining project in the West African nation of Mali.

Canadian company IAMGOLD Corp. owns the Siribaya project, a joint venture with Merrex Gold Inc. Each company owns 50 percent interest in the project.

The estimate reports are a requirement of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).

The Diakha zone was discovered in 2014; upon that discovery, IAMGOLD officials called for the expansion of the exploration drilling program that was already underway.

The estimate indicated resources of 2.1 million tons averaging 1.90 grams of gold per ton and inferred resources of 19.8 million tons averaging 1.71 grams of gold per ton.

"The Diakha discovery is the second greenfield discovery made by the IAMGOLD exploration team in West Africa in the last three years, including the Malikoundi deposit of the Boto gold project located in neighboring Senegal," Craig MacDougall, IAMGOLD's senior vice president of exploration, said. "Despite reduced budgets resulting from a sustained industry-wide downturn, the exploration group has successfully advanced Diakha from discovery to an initial resource estimate in just two years."