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Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM) shares rose on Friday after the company announced an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Gaspé copper project, located near Murdochville, Quebec.
The updated estimate includes pit-constrained resources comprising 824 million tonnes grading 0.34% copper-equivalent in the indicated category and 670 million tonnes grading 0.38% copper-equivalent in the inferred category.
This represents a 53% increase in copper-equivalent metal content over the previously reported indicated resource, and a 100-fold increase in copper-equivalent metal content in inferred resources.
Following the update, shares of Osisko Metals rose 8.7% by 4:10 p.m. EDT. The Canadian miner has a market capitalization of $64.1 million.
At 2.23 million tonnes of contained copper, as well as significant molybdenum (274 million lb.) and silver (46 million oz.), the latest Gaspé in-pit indicated resource hosts by far the largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum deposit in eastern North America, exclusive of inferred resources, the company noted.
A minimum 70,000-metre drill program is now planned for 2025, with the objective of converting the bulk of the current inferred resource to the indicated category.
Given this new resource milestone, management has elected to defer the preliminary economic assessment (PEA), originally slated for release in the first quarter of 2025, to a later date until additional drilling is completed.
“The Gaspé copper project is shaping up to be a major Canadian copper-molybdenum development project located in one of the world’s safest mining jurisdictions,” Osisko Metals CEO Robert Wares stated in a news release.
Osisko acquired a 100% interest in the former Gaspé copper mine in July 2023 from Glencore Canada.
