For Osisko Metals (TSX: OM) chief operating officer Jeff Hussey, life has a way of repeating itself.
Three decades ago, Hussey was hired by Toronto-based mining giant Noranda to work as a geologist at the Gaspé Copper mine in Murdochville, Quebec, about 825 km northeast of Montreal. It was there that he met the man who would go on to become his boss at Osisko, Robert Wares.
Today, 27 years after low metal prices shut Gaspé, both men are part of the team leading Osisko’s multi-billion-dollar drive to reopen the mine – which holds the biggest undeveloped copper resource east of the Mississippi – amid a global boom that has analysts predicting supply shortfalls for years to come.
“For both of us it’s kind of full circle,” Hussey told The Northern Miner in an interview last month. “Gaspé was a crown jewel of Noranda. It was one of the big mines that really made Noranda what it was.”
Milestone-rich
An upcoming resource update for Gaspé, which Osisko expects to publish by March 31, will kick off a milestone-rich year for the Montreal-based developer. Osisko is also preparing a preliminary economic assessment for the mine and an initial inferred resource for the Porphyry Mountain deposit – both of which should be released by Dec. 31, CEO Robert Wares says.
“We’re waiting with bated breath for the qualified person to finish modelling so we can publish that resource,” Wares told The Northern Miner. “It’ll be bigger than last year’s. We know we can grow it.”
Wares and executive chairman John Burzynski were key players in the discovery, development and financing of Quebec’s Canadian Malartic mine, which they sold for C$4.3 billion to Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM) and the former Yamana Gold in 2014.
“I like to think of Gaspé as the ‘Canadian Malartic’ of copper,” Burzynski said via e-mail. “There are so many similarities to when we started that project in late 2004. I believe that Gaspé will be another generational mine – it’s already significantly larger than Canadian Malartic in scale, and we are still expanding the resource.”
Longer life
While Gaspé’s mine life is currently pegged at about 30 years, “with what we’re going to add this time around it’s got potential for 30 to 40 years,” the CEO added. “We believe Gaspé Copper has the potential to become a long-lived generational asset, given the size that’s shaping up.”
Gaspé is one of North America’s largest undeveloped copper assets. It holds 824 million indicated tonnes grading 0.27% copper for 2.23 million tonnes of contained copper, plus another 670 million inferred tonnes of 0.3% copper for 1.99 million tonnes of contained metal, according to a November 2024 resource.
Osisko is targeting permits and construction by the early 2030s. Initial capital spending is estimated at about C$1.8 billion.
Although the main deposit was discovered in 1921, Gaspé Copper opened in 1955. A smelter – now dismantled – refined the ore mined locally as well as imported copper concentrates.
Prolonged slump
The site produced copper concentrate until the mine closed in 1999 with the red metal mired in a multi-year slump.
“Noranda briefly considered expanding the Copper Mountain pit, but the problem was that the smelter was located right on the edge of the pit so we couldn’t do that,” says Hussey, who first met Wares after starting at the mine. “When copper dropped to as low as 65 cents a lb., the mine was determined to be uneconomic and Noranda made the decision to shut it down.”
Exploration would eventually resume in 2009 under Xstrata, which had acquired Noranda by then. Glencore (LSE: GLEN) subsequently inherited the property through its 2012 acquisition of Xstrata.
Osisko bought the property from Glencore in 2023 for $45 million. It has since raised more than C$200 million from investors for exploration.
Bull market
A recent runup in copper prices, which were about $5.76 per lb. as press time neared, has only added to the Osisko CEO’s enthusiasm.
“We knew back then that we needed $4 copper” to make Gaspé Copper a success, Wares says.
“Now we’re at the start of a long-term bull market. Copper is hovering around $6 and I don’t see any downside. I think copper will keep performing because the supply demand dynamics are inescapable now on a global basis. We’re basically going to be in a copper deficit for quite a few years to come as a result of underinvestment and underdevelopment.”
Porphyry Mountain, which Noranda discovered in 1994, is one zone where Osisko’s recent work seems to be paying off. The deposit lies below and outside Gaspé Copper’s open-pit resource area.
Deep discovery
Historical drill hole DDH 30-0943 at Porphyry Mountain cut 852 metres of 0.65% copper and 2.89 grams silver per tonne from 998 metres downhole, Osisko said Feb. 5. Another hole, DDH 30-0916, intersected 499 metres grading 0.78% copper and 4.32 grams silver from 1,212 metres. The former was drilled in 2011, while the latter dates to 1996.
“It’s a great discovery but it’s deep. It starts 1,000 metres below surface,” Wares said.
Many of the historical holes drilled by previous operators that reached Porphyry Mountain’s lower portion ended in mineralization at depths between 1,700 and 2,100 metres. This demonstrates that the deposit remains open at depth, Osisko says.
“When we acquired the property from Glencore, we weren’t really considering Porphyry Mountain,” Wares says. “But now with the super pit coming along and a much larger resource, we realized that eventually there’s a good chance that pit is going to reach 900 or 1,000 metres depth. That changed everything for Porphyry Mountain because way down the road, in 30-40 years when the first pit is exhausted, we are only going to be a couple hundred metres above Porphyry Mountain. At that point, it would be easy to ramp into that deposit.”
Blue sky
Porphyry Mountain “demonstrates the long-life and blue-sky potential that could make Osisko an attractive M&A target for major copper producers in the long-term,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Rabi Nizami said in a note last month. “While historical and deeper, the length at this grade is exceptional for a porphyry system.”
Wares is coy about how Osisko plans to develop Gaspé Copper and won’t rule out selling out to a major. Quebec’s Windfall mine, which Osisko Mining started developing before Gold Fields (NYSE, JSE: GFI) acquired the company for C$2.2 billion in 2024, will likely serve as a blueprint.
“The only thing I can say at this point is that if we go ahead with the mine build, we will definitely need a partner,” Wares says. “That’s what we did with Windfall, we brought in Gold Fields first as partners and then they ended up making an offer. But the first step would be partnership.”
Cost inflation
Inflation in mining – and elsewhere – being what it is, Osisko’s most recent C$1.8 billion price tag for Gaspé Copper will almost certainly be revised.
“I have no doubt it will be higher, but we’ll worry about that in three or four years’ time,” Wares says.
In the meantime, the CEO and his team are hopeful that the federal government can negotiate a deal with Quebec that would curb duplicate environmental reviews and advance long-planned infrastructure and mining projects – similar to what Ottawa and Ontario agreed on last year.
Copper is officially designated as a critical mineral in Canada, having been recognized as crucial for the nation’s economic security, industrial strategy and green energy transition.
“Right now, you have to do your environmental impact at both the provincial and federal level. There’s a lot of duplication and a waste of time,” Wares said. “We’re hoping Ottawa can get a deal done with Quebec so that this can be implemented here. In which case we’re optimistic about getting our permits by maybe 2028 or 2029. If all goes well we can start construction in late 2030, which means the mine would have crack at starting operations in late 2032.”
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For Osisko Metals (TSX: OM) chief operating officer Jeff Hussey, life has a way of repeating itself.
Three decades ago, Hussey was hired by Toronto-based mining giant Noranda to work as a geologist at the Gaspé Copper mine in Murdochville, Quebec, about 825 km northeast of Montreal. It was there that he met the man who would go on to become his boss at Osisko, Robert Wares.
Today, 27 years after low metal prices shut Gaspé, both men are part of the team leading Osisko’s multi-billion-dollar drive to reopen the mine – which holds the biggest undeveloped copper resource east of the Mississippi – amid a global boom that has analysts predicting supply shortfalls for years to come.
“For both of us it’s kind of full circle,” Hussey told The Northern Miner in an interview last month. “Gaspé was a crown jewel of Noranda. It was one of the big mines that really made Noranda what it was.”
Milestone-rich
An upcoming resource update for Gaspé, which Osisko expects to publish by March 31, will kick off a milestone-rich year for the Montreal-based developer. Osisko is also preparing a preliminary economic assessment for the mine and an initial inferred resource for the Porphyry Mountain deposit – both of which should be released by Dec. 31, CEO Robert Wares says.
“We’re waiting with bated breath for the qualified person to finish modelling so we can publish that resource,” Wares told The Northern Miner. “It’ll be bigger than last year’s. We know we can grow it.”
Wares and executive chairman John Burzynski were key players in the discovery, development and financing of Quebec’s Canadian Malartic mine, which they sold for C$4.3 billion to Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM) and the former Yamana Gold in 2014.
“I like to think of Gaspé as the ‘Canadian Malartic’ of copper,” Burzynski said via e-mail. “There are so many similarities to when we started that project in late 2004. I believe that Gaspé will be another generational mine – it’s already significantly larger than Canadian Malartic in scale, and we are still expanding the resource.”
Longer life
While Gaspé’s mine life is currently pegged at about 30 years, “with what we’re going to add this time around it’s got potential for 30 to 40 years,” the CEO added. “We believe Gaspé Copper has the potential to become a long-lived generational asset, given the size that’s shaping up.”
Gaspé is one of North America’s largest undeveloped copper assets. It holds 824 million indicated tonnes grading 0.27% copper for 2.23 million tonnes of contained copper, plus another 670 million inferred tonnes of 0.3% copper for 1.99 million tonnes of contained metal, according to a November 2024 resource.
Osisko is targeting permits and construction by the early 2030s. Initial capital spending is estimated at about C$1.8 billion.
Although the main deposit was discovered in 1921, Gaspé Copper opened in 1955. A smelter – now dismantled – refined the ore mined locally as well as imported copper concentrates.
Prolonged slump
The site produced copper concentrate until the mine closed in 1999 with the red metal mired in a multi-year slump.
“Noranda briefly considered expanding the Copper Mountain pit, but the problem was that the smelter was located right on the edge of the pit so we couldn’t do that,” says Hussey, who first met Wares after starting at the mine. “When copper dropped to as low as 65 cents a lb., the mine was determined to be uneconomic and Noranda made the decision to shut it down.”
Exploration would eventually resume in 2009 under Xstrata, which had acquired Noranda by then. Glencore (LSE: GLEN) subsequently inherited the property through its 2012 acquisition of Xstrata.
Osisko bought the property from Glencore in 2023 for $45 million. It has since raised more than C$200 million from investors for exploration.
Bull market
A recent runup in copper prices, which were about $5.76 per lb. as press time neared, has only added to the Osisko CEO’s enthusiasm.
“We knew back then that we needed $4 copper” to make Gaspé Copper a success, Wares says.
“Now we’re at the start of a long-term bull market. Copper is hovering around $6 and I don’t see any downside. I think copper will keep performing because the supply demand dynamics are inescapable now on a global basis. We’re basically going to be in a copper deficit for quite a few years to come as a result of underinvestment and underdevelopment.”
Porphyry Mountain, which Noranda discovered in 1994, is one zone where Osisko’s recent work seems to be paying off. The deposit lies below and outside Gaspé Copper’s open-pit resource area.
Deep discovery
Historical drill hole DDH 30-0943 at Porphyry Mountain cut 852 metres of 0.65% copper and 2.89 grams silver per tonne from 998 metres downhole, Osisko said Feb. 5. Another hole, DDH 30-0916, intersected 499 metres grading 0.78% copper and 4.32 grams silver from 1,212 metres. The former was drilled in 2011, while the latter dates to 1996.
“It’s a great discovery but it’s deep. It starts 1,000 metres below surface,” Wares said.
Many of the historical holes drilled by previous operators that reached Porphyry Mountain’s lower portion ended in mineralization at depths between 1,700 and 2,100 metres. This demonstrates that the deposit remains open at depth, Osisko says.
“When we acquired the property from Glencore, we weren’t really considering Porphyry Mountain,” Wares says. “But now with the super pit coming along and a much larger resource, we realized that eventually there’s a good chance that pit is going to reach 900 or 1,000 metres depth. That changed everything for Porphyry Mountain because way down the road, in 30-40 years when the first pit is exhausted, we are only going to be a couple hundred metres above Porphyry Mountain. At that point, it would be easy to ramp into that deposit.”
Blue sky
Porphyry Mountain “demonstrates the long-life and blue-sky potential that could make Osisko an attractive M&A target for major copper producers in the long-term,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Rabi Nizami said in a note last month. “While historical and deeper, the length at this grade is exceptional for a porphyry system.”
Wares is coy about how Osisko plans to develop Gaspé Copper and won’t rule out selling out to a major. Quebec’s Windfall mine, which Osisko Mining started developing before Gold Fields (NYSE, JSE: GFI) acquired the company for C$2.2 billion in 2024, will likely serve as a blueprint.
“The only thing I can say at this point is that if we go ahead with the mine build, we will definitely need a partner,” Wares says. “That’s what we did with Windfall, we brought in Gold Fields first as partners and then they ended up making an offer. But the first step would be partnership.”
Cost inflation
Inflation in mining – and elsewhere – being what it is, Osisko’s most recent C$1.8 billion price tag for Gaspé Copper will almost certainly be revised.
“I have no doubt it will be higher, but we’ll worry about that in three or four years’ time,” Wares says.
In the meantime, the CEO and his team are hopeful that the federal government can negotiate a deal with Quebec that would curb duplicate environmental reviews and advance long-planned infrastructure and mining projects – similar to what Ottawa and Ontario agreed on last year.
Copper is officially designated as a critical mineral in Canada, having been recognized as crucial for the nation’s economic security, industrial strategy and green energy transition.
“Right now, you have to do your environmental impact at both the provincial and federal level. There’s a lot of duplication and a waste of time,” Wares said. “We’re hoping Ottawa can get a deal done with Quebec so that this can be implemented here. In which case we’re optimistic about getting our permits by maybe 2028 or 2029. If all goes well we can start construction in late 2030, which means the mine would have crack at starting operations in late 2032.”