On May 6, 2024, Osisko Metals announced its updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Copper Mountain, part of the Gaspé Copper Project in Québec. The updated comprises an Indicated Resource of 495 million tonnes grading 0.37% copper equivalent.

Highlights include:

  • the copper equivalent metal content has increased by 30% over our previous April 2022 copper only Inferred Resource.
  • over 99% of the material has been upgraded from the Inferred to the Indicated resource category.
  • Copper Mountain, with its 3.25 billion pounds (1.47 million tonnes) of contained copper in the Indicated Resource category, is the largest undeveloped copper asset in Eastern North America.
  • the estimate also includes significant molybdenum at 180 million pounds and silver at 28 million ounces.
  • the strip ratio has been reduced by 38% to 1.23 from previously reported, based on the geometry of the mineralization that surrounds the former open pit mine.

Table: Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) Base Case 

Class
Tonnes
Cu Eq
Cu
Mo
Ag
Cu
Cu
Mo
Mo
Ag
Mt
%
%
%
g/t
M lbs
kt
M lbs
kt
(koz)
Indicated
495
0.37
0.30
0.016
1.75
3,248
1,473
180
82
27,911
Inferred
6.3
0.37
0.28
0.019
1.44
39
18
3
1
291

 

  1. The independent qualified persons for the MRE, as defined by National Instrument (“NI”) 43-101 guidelines, is Pierre-Luc Richard, P.Geo., of PLR Resources Inc. with contributions from Carl Michaud, P.Eng., of G-Mining for cut-off grade and Pit shell optimization, and Colin Hardie, P.Eng., from BBA, for metallurgical parameters. The effective date of the MRE is April 22, 2024.
  2. These Mineral Resources are not mineral reserves as they have no demonstrated economic viability. No economic evaluation of these Mineral Resources has been produced. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources in this MRE are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient drilling to define these Inferred Resources as Indicated. However, it is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated category with continued drilling.
  3. The Qualified Persons are not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues that could materially affect the MRE.
  4. Calculations used metric units (metres, tonnes). Metal contents in the above table are presented in percent, pounds or tonnes. Metric tonnages and pounds were rounded, and any discrepancies in total amounts are due to rounding errors.
  5. CIM definitions and guidelines for Mineral Resource Estimates have been followed. See Cautionary Note below for copper equivalency (CuEq) values.

General parameters of the updated Mineral Resource Estimate

This resource is pit-constrained to mineralization surrounding the past-producing Copper Mountain open pit mine and uses, amongst other parameters, a long-term spot price of US$4.00/lb copper (cutoff of 0.12% Cu) for pit shell modelling, pre-set eastern and southeastern geographical constraints on pit limits to minimize impacts on the town of Murdochville from potential mining operations, and a lower cut-off grade of 0.15% copper for base case in-pit resource estimation. The resource was estimated using data from historical drilling completed between the 1950’s and 2019 and 37,390 metres of drilling completed by the Company in 2022 and 2023. See Appendix at the end of this news release for detailed parameters.

Read the full May 6, 2024 news release