Osisko grows Lynx deposit at Windfall in Abitibi

Infill drilling from March through October at Osisko Mining’s (TSX: OSK) Lynx deposit at its Windfall project, in the Abitibi greenstone belt in the James Bay region of Quebec, has added ounces and higher grades, the company announced in a resource update.

Osisko has increased Lynx’s indicated resources by 153,000 ounces of gold and boosted its grade from the 7.51 grams gold per tonne in a May 2018 resource estimate to the current 8.13 grams gold per tonne. Inferred resources have increased by 82,000 ounces of gold and grade to 9.70 grams gold from 7.48 grams gold.

In total, Lynx’s indicated resource now stands at 1.75 million tonnes averaging 8.13 grams gold for 456,000 ounces of gold, and its inferred resource measures 2.01 million tonnes grading 9.70 grams gold for 625,000 ounces of contained gold.

The Lynx discovery, immediately adjacent and to the northeast of the main Windfall deposit, now makes up more than one million ounces of gold in the project’s global resource.

Overall, the new resource estimate for Lynx increases the global resource of the Windfall project to 2.87 million indicated tonnes averaging 8.17 grams gold for 754,000 ounces of contained gold, and 10.35 million inferred tonnes averaging 7.11 grams gold for 2.4 million ounces of contained gold.

The Windfall intrusive-related gold system remains open along strike and at depth.

News of the updated resource sent Osisko Mining’s shares up 8¢, or 3.2%, to $2.58 in mid-morning trading.

John Burzynski, Osisko Mining’s president and CEO, notes that as infill drilling carries on at Lynx, “we will continue to see the average indicated grade move up.”

He also states that the higher grades and additional ounces “will also have a strong positive effect on the robust Windfall preliminary economic assessment released in July 2018.”

The updated resource, released on Nov. 27, will be followed by further grade confirmation work, he says, including initial results from the company’s bulk sampling of the project’s Zone 27, which is on track to be released before the end of the year.

Osisko is also deep drilling on its Triple 8 discovery and expects news on those results before the end of January 2019.

Osisko is currently the largest stakeholder in the Urban Barry greenstone belt with over 40% of the land staked. The Urban Barry greenstone belt has an east-west extent of 135 km and is 4-20 km wide.

Windfall, which lies within the traditional territory of the Waswanipi Cree First Nation, is about 700 km northwest of Montreal, 200 km northeast of Val-d’Or and 115 km east of Lebel-sur-Quevillon.

The company has about 257 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of $662 million.