North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Osisko Metals Inc. July 14 announced the start of a 13,000-meter summer-fall drill program at Pine Point focused largely on continued infill drilling to upgrade inferred resources outlined at this past-producing zinc project in Canada's Northwest Territories to the higher confidence indicated category.

A preliminary economic assessment completed in mid-2020 outlines a mine at Pine Point that would produce an average of 327 million pounds of zinc and 143 million lb of lead annually over an initial 10-year mine life.

According to a calculation updated for the PEA, Pine Point hosts 12.9 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.56% zinc and 1.73% lead, plus 37.6 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 4.89% zinc and 1.91% lead.

The current drill program will focus on upgrading inferred resources in areas where summer access is available. A number of these holes will also be used to characterize water flow in the dolomite host rock in areas not previously investigated on the project.

The 2020 PEA outlined significant costs associated with dewatering during mining at Pine Point. As such, Osisko has been carrying out drilling to characterize subsurface water flow characteristics in the eastern portion of the Pine Point Camp.

In June, the company said hydrogeological testing carried out so far indicates a significant and positive change to its understanding of groundwater flow conditions with the potential to significantly reduce costs related to future dewatering.

"These preliminary results represent a paradigm shift concerning underground water infiltration at Pine Point," Osisko Metals Chairman and CEO Robert Wares said at the time. "Cominco operated successfully at Pine Point for 24 years and demonstrated that mine dewatering was manageable in the main part of the camp, and we firmly believe, especially in light of these preliminary results, that this will also be the case in the south-western portion of the camp which includes the high-grade West Zone deposits."

Further subsurface water flow characteristics in the eastern portion of the Pine Point property are expected to provide a comprehensive hydrogeological foundation that will result in lower estimated capital and operating expenditures associated with life-of-mine water management in an updated PEA slated for completion early next year.

Osisko Metals Inc.

A large amount of core from Cominco's historical drilling at Pine Point are laid out in rows on the zinc property.

"The new hydrogeological model will underpin reduced CAPEX and OPEX, while the updated mineral resource is expected to provide a stronger base for project planning," said Osisko Mining President and COO Jeff Hussey. "Pine Point will be one of the most advanced zinc development projects globally and will stand out as a potential producer of ultra-clean zinc concentrate. As the need for sustainable infrastructure increases through government-backed, post-pandemic stimulus funding, the demand for zinc is expected to increase, adding pressure to decreasing global zinc production."

In addition to the resource upgrade and hydrogeological drilling, crews are re-logging and re-assaying core from historical drilling carried out by Cominco, which operated a mine at Pine Point for roughly a 24-year span beginning in 1964.

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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