Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. announced that the Canadian Malartic Partnership, comprising Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Yamana Gold Inc., have approved construction of the Odyssey underground project at the Canadian Malartic mine.
“The construction decision for the Odyssey underground project by Agnico and Yamana secures the Canadian Malartic mine as Osisko’s flagship asset for decades,” President and CEO Sandeep Singh said. “It is difficult to over emphasize the importance of this catalyst for Osisko as Canadian Malartic will continue to provide sustainable production until at least 2039, with significant upside beyond. We commend the partnership for the exploration and engineering efforts that have led to this announcement.”
The Odyssey project hosts three main underground-mineralized zones: East Gouldie, East Malartic and Odyssey, the latter of which is subdivided into the Odyssey North, Odyssey South and Odyssey Internal zones. Osisko holds a 5% net smelter royalty (NSR) on East Gouldie, Odyssey South and the western half of East Malartic and a 3% NSR royalty on Odyssey North and the eastern half of East Malartic.
The East Gouldie deposit makes up 70% of the planned underground mining inventory. The Odyssey production forecast only considers about half of the total underground resources comprising inferred resources of 13.58 million oz (177.5 million metric tons of 2.38g/t gold), as well as indicated resources of 860,000 million oz (13.3 million mt of 2.01g/t gold) using a gold price assumption of US$1,250 per ounce.
Exploration drilling at East Gouldie in 2020 totaled 97,000 meters (m) and increased the inferred mineral resource of the East Gouldie zone by 134%. The total exploration budget for 2021 has increased to 173,400 m (US$30 million) focusing on further infill and expansion of East Gouldie and regional targets. East Gouldie alone will benefit from 141,400 m of drilling, which is approximately 80% of the total that has been drilled on East Gouldie to date.
A preliminary economic assessment technical report for the Canadian Malartic operation is expected to be filed in March.
Agnico will continue to evaluate optimization of the project and potential mining scenarios to further improve project economics.
