Osisko begins building Canadian Malartic Mine

In mid-August 2009, Osisko Mining Corporation received the official go-ahead from the Quebec government to begin building its Canadian Malartic gold mine in Malartic, Quebec. Shortly afterwards the company obtained the authorization certificates for the project and Osisko has started work on construction of the mine and the mill. The construction work is scheduled to take 18 months to complete and the mine and mill are expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2011.

The Canadian Malartic mine

Osisko’s CEO, President and Director Sean Roosen says the company was ready to begin construction of the mine as soon as it received its approval from the provincial government.

“Site preparation for the mill has been completed, we’ve blasted one million tons of aggregate for the tailings pond and we’re starting on the mine crusher site,” Roosen said. “All our equipment and people are in place to begin construction of the mine and mill immediately.”

One of the first jobs to receive attention is pouring of the concrete for the mill foundation.

“All together we have 35,000 cubic metres to pour,” Roosen said. “We expect to be finished by spring 2010.”

As Canadian mining projects go -especially these days -Canadian Malartic is a big one. Canadian Malartic is forecast to produce a total of 591,000 oz/Au over the mine’s 10-year life span, with 600,000-800,000 oz/Au per year in the mine’s early years.

Nearly CDN$1 billion is being invested in the project, which will create approximately 800 direct jobs during the construction phase and 465 permanent direct jobs during the operation life of the mine. Roosen says the mine will generate an additional 1,065 secondary jobs.

The size of the open pit mine will be 1,800 m long by 800 m wide by 380 m deep, or 144 ha in area. Osisko’s drilling and compilation work has outlined a gold mineralized system measuring 1,900 m x 350 m, with a variable true thickness ranging from 40 to 270 m to a vertical depth of 320 m from surface. The system is open to the west and to the south at depth. Roosen says current reserves for Canadian Malartic are 6.28 million ounces, plus an indicated resource of 1.4 million ounces and an inferred resource of 720,000 ounces. The maximum open-pitable depth is 375 m. The potential at depth will be investigated at a later stage of the exploration program.

A 200,000-m definition and exploration drilling program is under way on five mineralized zones on the property. In mid-summer 2009, five drills were operating.

Already one of the largest single-deposit gold reserves in Canada, Canadian Malartic continues to grow, thanks to a drilling program on the South Barnat mineralized zone. South Barnat is a separate gold system located approximately 1,200 m northeast of the centre of the Canadian Malartic deposit. At a cut-off of 1.00 g/t Au, the in-pit

measured and indicated resource (NI 43-101-compliant) is 1.81 million ounces grading at 2.12 g/t Au with an additional in-pit inferred resource of 50,000 ounces grading at 1.87 g/t Au.

Over the full 20-year life of the Canadian Malartic project (2005-2024), Osisko will invest $3.25 billion in the project. The mine is expected to generate more than $1.5 billion over its lifespan, of which about $900 million will go to Osisko employees in the form of salaries.

In addition to employment in the region and in the province, the project is expected to generate over $900 million in revenues for the Quebec and Canadian governments.