15 June 2020
Osisko Metals Incorporated is pleased to announce results of an independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (the “PEA”) including the results of an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (the “2020 MRE”) that converts approximately 25.5% of the global resource to the Indicated Mineral Resource category for its wholly-owned Pine Point Project (the “Pine Point Project” or the “Project”), located near the town of Hay River in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The PEA was prepared in collaboration with independent engineering firms BBA Inc., WSP Canada Inc., and Tetra Tech.
Robert Wares, Executive Chairman & CEO, commented: “I am very pleased with the PEA study showing an impressive after-tax IRR of 29.6% and after-tax NPV of C$500 M. The proposed mine plan would produce over 450Mlb of zinc in its peak year and an annual average of nearly 330Mlb of zinc and 145Mlb of lead over its estimated 10-year mine life. On a zinc-only basis, Pine Point could potentially, if it entered into production, become a low-cost zinc-lead producer ranking 4th largest in the Americas and 9th in the world, yielding an exceptionally clean and high-grade zinc concentrate.”
Robert Wares continued: “Furthermore, the concurrent release of an updated 2020 MRE for Pine Point demonstrates that continued drilling will improve the classification of the resources and potentially yield further expansion of known deposits. With several deposits open, I am particularly excited to continue exploring and expanding the resource base across the Project. We strongly believe in the Pine Point Project and Osisko Metals will continue developing this asset within the context of improving global zinc markets.”
Jeff Hussey, President & COO, added: “The current PEA concept is a large scale operation (11,250 tonne per day (“tpd”)), where the mineral resource mined would be sourced mainly from small, near-surface open pits with additional contributions from 8 high grade, shallow deposits mined by underground methods from the West and Central Zones. The PEA considers historical data from the Cominco Ltd. era and incorporates significant technological improvements in the mining industry since the closure of the Pine Point operation in 1988. While the PEA already outlines a base-case for a potential top-ten zinc producer of high-quality clean concentrate, we foresee several areas for improvement as we continue to optimize these great initial economic metrics and move towards initiating a feasibility study.”