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(Kitco News) – John Burzynski, CEO and executive chair of Osisko Mining (TSX:OSK) was part of a trio that raised a billion dollars to put the Canadian Malartic mine into production. Now, Burzynski is trying to do the same thing with the Windfall project in Quebec.
He spoke to Kitco mid-September at the Gold Forum Americas 2023 held in Colorado Springs, CO.
Earlier this year, Osisko formed a joint venture with Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) to develop the high-grade asset, which has a 7.4-million-ounce resource grading an average 9-10 grams per tonne.
Asked why the company partnered with Gold Fields rather than agree to a buyout, Burzynski said it was due to the production potential.
"It's the largest single underground high-grade mine ever discovered in Canada, so why we didn't do a takeout deal with Gold Fields is because we believe it will end up being a substantial producer," he said, noting the feasibility study shows about 300,000 ounces per year over a 10- year mine life.
"We certainly believe this is going to be a multi-decade asset, that 7.4-million-ounce resource we believe will double in time or more," Burzynski continued. "The deposit continues from the drilling that we've done down to at least 2.8 kilometers. Our resource only covers the first 1,200 meters, so having even half of that asset as a substantial producer in time will be of great benefit to the Osisko shareholders. I think ultimately, it's going to have a cash flow and ounce-per-year production profile similar to Canadian Malartic when we started that."
With Windfall comprising only five square kilometers of the 2,300 km2 controlled by Osisko, Burzynski said it has district-scale potential.
"It really is a district that's analogous to the whole of the Val-d'Or camp or the Timmins camp. The geology is the same, we age-dated all the porphyries when we initially acquired it in 2015, and it showed us that everything related to gold mineralization happened at the same time between 2.69 billion and 2.71 billion years ago, which is the identical age of the gold-bearing intrusives in the Timmins camp. And so that told us was that Windfall shouldn't be a singularity. There should be dozens of Windfalls over time."
Kitco Mining's coverage of the Gold Forum Americas 2023 was sponsored by Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd.