By Geena Paul
MALARTIC, CANADA (Commodity Online): Osisko Mining Corporation holds a 100% interest in the Canadian Malartic gold deposit in Quebec, Canada, one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions. Canadian Malartic is one of the world’s largest undeveloped resources wholly owned by a junior explorer, and is located in a mining district near extensive existing infrastructure.
Canadian government has given permission to the project under certain conditions. Once the nod is given, the company said, “We are more enthusiastic than ever at the prospects offered by our project for Malartic’s community as well as for our investors. Canadian Malartic project will create value not only for our shareholders but also for the economy, businesses and workers in Malartic, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and all of Quebec. From the beginning of this project, we have been determined to optimize the economic impact over its entire life cycle, while being diligent to minimize its impact on the physical and human environment”.
Osisko Mining Corporation is developing the Malartic gold deposit and evaluating adjacent areas for a large-scale open pit, bulk-tonnage mining operation. Malartic deposit currently represents one the biggest gold reserves in Canada for a single deposit, and is still growing through ongoing drilling on new mineralized zones. Current reserves for the Canadian Malartic property are 6.28 million ounces, plus a measured and indicated resource of 3.65 million ounces and an inferred resource of 0.84 million ounces
Next year, Osisko Mining Corp. plans to start ripping up the streets in the town and digging what will become Canada’s biggest open-pit gold mine.
People are happy about the economic benefits the project will bring to their economically depressed region, including 465 permanent jobs and close to 800 construction jobs.
Until a few years ago, residents in the southern end of Malartic had no idea their homes were built on one of the largest gold deposits in Canada. Osisko began drilling hundreds of holes in the streets in 2005 on a hunch there was gold fairly close to the surface. It discovered one of the largest gold deposits in North America — an estimated 6.28-million ounces and another 3.65-million ounces on adjacent properties.
With gold prices rising after years of stagnation to more than $900 an ounce, investors are anxious to cash in on the potential profits as quickly as possible. However, the only feasible way to undertake the project is as an open-pit mine.
The mine will eventually be two kilometres long, 800 meters wide and 380 metres deep - deep enough to bury the Eiffel Tower. The only thing separating the pit from the community will be a `green wall’ 80 metres wide and 15 metres high.
At least four new open-pit mining projects are in the process of being evaluated, including an ore deposit near Amos, some 50 kilometres north of Malartic, that could be as much as three times the size of the Osisko mine.
