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

Osisko Metals Inc. Sept. 5 announced initial assays from its 2023 definition drilling at the Pine Point project in Northwest Territories, Canada, as part of the joint venture with Appian Capital, which intends to upgrade resources from the inferred to the indicated category in preparation for a feasibility study.

Located just south of the Great Slave Lake, Pine Point is home to a former mine operated by Cominco (now Teck Resources) that produced roughly 14 billion pounds of zinc and 4 billion lb of lead from around 64 million metric tons of ore during a 24-year span beginning in 1964.

Acquiring Pine Point in 2018, Osisko completed a preliminary economic assessment for reestablishing a zinc mine, yet quickly found it necessary to update the PEA considering the volatility of present metals prices.

The updated PEA and mineral estimate shows Pine Point now hosts 15.8 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.17% zinc and 1.53% lead, plus 47.2 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.43% zinc and 1.68% lead.

Based on this resource, the updated PEA outlines a mine that would produce 329 million pounds of zinc and 141 million lb of lead over 12 years of mining.

At the beginning of the year, Osisko announced a C$100 million (US$74 million) investment agreement with Appian Capital Advisory LLP, a London-based private equity group that specializes in acquiring and developing mining assets, that resulted in a joint venture focused on advancing Pine Point to "shovel-ready" status.

Now, the first assays are rolling in from a 2023 definition drilling program designed to achieve an average drill spacing of approximately 30 meters within the current modeled mineral resources reported in the 2022 PEA deposits.

"We are excited to announce these initial results from our 2023 Definition Drilling program," said Osisko Metals CEO Robert Wares. "Integrating these drill results will allow for improvement of our mineral resource base that will be used in the upcoming Feasibility Study being initiated in H2 2023."

Highlights from the definition drilling include:

• 14 meters averaging 8.21% zinc and 5.3% lead in hole X25-23-PP-003.

• 33 meters averaging 11.26% zinc and 2.71% lead in X25-23-PP-004.

• 10.96 meters averaging 5.84% zinc and 0.75% lead in X25-23-PP-028.

Osisko Metals Inc.

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• 6.98 meters averaging 21.09% zinc and 3.24% lead in X25-23-PP-034.

• 8.98 meters averaging 11.42% zinc and 1.79% lead in X25-23-PP-038.

• 7.98 meters averaging 24.84% zinc and 5.36% lead in X25-23-PP-039.

"Currently several definition studies are underway to perform trade-offs in order to freeze the project's design concept in preparation for the FS," added Wares. "We are also happy to report our progress towards permitting initiatives and potential construction of a mine at Pine Point with our JV partners Appian Capital Advisory LLP. Meetings with local communities and regulators are ongoing to keep everyone up to date regarding the permitting process as we advance the Pine Point Project."