Osisko Mining (OSK-T) has released drill results that suggest the Western Porphyry Zone could add to the mine life of its adjacent Canadian Malartic gold project, currently under development.
Drilling returned long, low-grade hits including 137.8 metres grading 0.93 gram gold starting at 9 metres depth and 197 metres of 0.82 gram gold starting at 47 metres. Five of the 25 holes reported failed to return significant mineralization.
The Western Porphyry zone is on the Amphi property, just northwest of Canadian Malartic. Construction at Canadian Malartic, about 20 km west of Val d'Or, Que., is progressing rapidly, with commercial production expected to begin in April 2011. The mine has a life of 12.2 years, with production expected to average well over 600,000 oz. gold per year.
The results are the first from the Western Porphyry zone since an initial 10-hole drill program returned 166.5 metres of 1.01 grams gold per tonne, as reported in March 2008. The 82-hole, 21,000-metre drill program was carried out on 50-metre spacings starting in late 2009.
Osisko says the drill results so far suggest the Western Porphyry zone is about 500 metres long, 50-200 metres wide and 100-150 metres deep. The zone is open at depth and the mineralization consists of fine disseminated /stockwork pyrite and gold in potassic and carbonate-altered porphyry and volcanics.
The Western Porphyry zone is one of five priority drill targets near Canadian Malartic that Osisko believes could extend the mine life.
Osisko shares traded at $11.75 in late afternoon trading in a 12-month window of $6.42-12.45. The company has 369.6 million shares outstanding.
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