Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist
MURDOCHVILLE: – Osisko Metals might have to invest $2 billion to restart Gaspé Mines operations following announcements made before the holidays.
That’s according to the mining company’s chief executive officer, Robert Wares, on the sidelines of a January 13 press conference to launch a committee to maximize local economic benefits surrounding the potential resumption of operations in Murdochville.
In November, in an update, Osisko said the mine site would contain 824 million tonnes of mineralized rocks grading 0.34% in copper and 670 million tonnes grading 0.38%.
This estimate represented a 53% increase in copper equiv alent metal content over previously reported indicated reIt is estimated to contain 4.91 billion pounds of copper, making it the largest undeveloped deposit in eastern North America.
In December, Osisko acquired 199 mining claims adjacent to the Gaspé Mines site.
The company concluded an agreement with two private claim holders on October 8 for five million common shares and a 2% royalty on net smelter returns, half of which is redeemable for $2 million.
The claims cover lands around the Gaspé Mines project, including portions of the potential tailings facility and exploration targets located north and south of the Murdochville project.
“We are now at a potentially much larger project. We are very optimistic. We have tripled the resource, but half of this new resource is inferred, which involves a lot of drilling to convert this safer resource category. We want to convert all of these 1.5 billion tonnes to an indicated resource category.
We are looking at 100,000 metres of drilling this summer,” says Mr. Wares.
These latest announcements have allowed the company to raise $100 million to continue the research.
“The financial markets were very surprised. No one expected the resource to be this large. I am very confident that we will be able to define it in a pit model and lead to a huge operation over 30 years,” he says.
“We have a good chance of increasing the grade slightly. When you are talking about an open-pit operation of this magnitude, every decimal point of copper percentage counts. The price of copper is holding up very well. I am considering $4.50 per US pound in the long term, which would make such a project very profitable. Our project is economical at $4.25, but we are at the limit,” says the Osisko Metals manager and former Mines Gaspé geologist.
The preliminary economic study should be published in 2026 and the feasibility study at the end of 2027 and the decision for exploitation would be made at the end of 2029 with the permits obtained.
This year’s drilling campaign will look for new mineralized zones. “With the new claims, we have two targets to drill this summer: one north and one south of Murdochville, which could potentially be new discoveries,” says Mr. Wares.
Pumping tests will be done this summer to dewater the Mount Copper pit, which has so far been the main target of Osisko Metals’ exploration campaign. “To better quantify the impacts of dewatering and if all goes well, we hope to begin dewatering in late fall or in 2026,” says the CEO.
When the resource was at 500 million tonnes of copper, the company mentioned an investment of about $1.4 billion.
“We had continued our economic studies and we were at $1.4 billion. With what we are aiming for, which is much bigger, I am sure we will exceed $2 billion,” the manager calculates.
Osisko met with Ressources Pélican, which wants to renovate the Grande-Vallée wharf, which could change the copper shipping plans.
Rail was mentioned to send the copper to Rouyn-Noranda and vessels for shipments to Europe.
“For rail, we had a meeting with Ressources Pélican to ship to Abitibi. It could go through (the wharves of) Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Grande-Vallée. It is the economic studies that will determine the best method: a combination of road and rail transport. We don’t know, but one thing is certain: for Europe, it will leave from Gaspé,” explains Mr. Wares.