SA’s Gold Fields Partners With Osisko To Develop The Windfall Project In Québec, Canada
SA’s Gold Fields Partners With Osisko To Develop The Windfall Project In Québec, Canada. Gold Fields Limited is pleased to announce a partnership with Osisko Mining Inc. to develop and mine the world class underground Windfall Project in Québec, Canada, now known as the Windfall Mining Group. Under executed and implemented transaction agreements, Gold Fields, through a 100% held Canadian subsidiary, has acquired a 50% interest in the feasibility stage Windfall Project.
Under the Partnership, Gold Fields has also acquired a 50% up-front vested interest in Osisko’s highly prospective Urban Barry and Quévillon district exploration camps, totaling approximately 2,400km2, which will be co-explored and co-developed under the Partnership. In exchange, Gold Fields will fund the first C$75 million in regional exploration on those Exploration Properties over the first seven years of the Partnership. Thereafter, exploration spend will be shared 50/50.
Under the Partnership structure, each of Osisko and Gold Fields respectively hold an effective 50% partnership interest in the Windfall Project and the Exploration Properties. Management and operatorship will be joint, and each partner holds a 50% interest in a newly incorporated company responsible for managing the operations of the Windfall Project and exploring the Exploration Properties for and on behalf of Gold Fields and Osisko. The management company will be governed by a Board of Directors comprising three directors nominated by Gold Fields and three directors nominated by Osisko.
Having carried out extensive due diligence, management interaction and site visits for just over a year, Gold Fields believes the Windfall Project is on track to become a high-quality, low-cost underground gold mine with a relatively small surface footprint and considerable growth prospects along strike and down plunge, well beyond delineated Mineral Reserves and the current 10 year projected mine life set out in Osisko’s December 2022 Windfall Feasibility Study. Drawing on more than 20 years of successful brownfields exploration and reserve growth at its Western Australian operations, Gold Fields sees the potential for a similar path to emerge at the Windfall, Urban Barry and Quévillon belts. These gold belts bear striking similarities to Western Australia’s highly productive greenstone gold belts and boast a growing number of exciting targets within Osisko’s extensive and underexplored land tenure.
To accelerate the next phase of discoveries, Gold Fields will fund the first C$75M over the next seven years, with the goal of fast-tracking exploration discovery and transitioning the Windfall, Urban Barry and Quévillon belts into premier, multi-decade mining operations. Property-wide regional and near- deposit exploration is already in progress, with 6 drills exploring targets developed by Osisko over the past 7 years, and include the Golden Bear, Fox and Shellian prospects. An initial exploration program developed by Osisko and Gold Fields includes $20 million dedicated to these and other targets in the coming 24 months.
Comment from Martin Preece (Gold Fields interim CEO) “We are very pleased to be partnering with Osisko to bring the high-quality Windfall Project into production and believe that this will be the first mine of several in this partnership in a highly prospective region. We have actively reviewed a range of opportunities to gain exposure to the prolific Abitibi region and believe that this deal is the opportunity which meets our requirements. We are excited to be working together with our partners to create value for all our stakeholders. This deal, following the recently announced JV with AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana demonstrates our commitment to growing the value and quality of our portfolio of assets. Further, adding in Salares Norte, which is expected to come into production at the end of this year, strengthens Gold Fields’ future production profile and enhances its position on the cost curve.”
