Osisko and Clifton Star report promising results from Duparquet project

By Lawrence Williams, Mineweb.com

Canadian high flying gold exploration/development company, Osisko Mining, is, among its other projects, potentially earning 50% interest in Clifton Star's Duparquet gold project in Quebec by carrying out a major drilling programme on the Clifton Star properties.  It currently has ten drill rigs working on a section of the Clifton Star ground, but there has been a dearth of results and the impression is that Osisko has been concentrating more on bringing its wholly-owned Canadian Malartic project towards production and on its take-over of Brett Resources with its big low grade Hammond Reef gold property.

Osisko is a remarkable story and, assuming it can stay the course has the prospect of moving from junior explorer to gold producing major in only a matter of a few years with the prospect of three significant Canadian gold mines coming on stream by the middle of the decade.  Its Canadian Malartic mine, where it has outlined over 11 million ounces of gold, is due on stream next year and it has a number of other exploration projects on the go.

Clifton Star's Duparquet project is nowadays perhaps No. 3 on its list but nonetheless could become a significant producer in its own right.  Clifton Star had already outlined over 2 million ounces of gold in the old mining area over which it has its interest before Osisko became involved and with the latter to spend some $70 million to earn its 50% it is obvious that at least Osisko believes there is huge potential for a far bigger resource to be defined, developed and mined - and Osisko  geologists have so far proved to be excellent judges of gold potential in these old gold mining areas.  Talk in the community suggests that Osisko is looking for at least 5 million ounces on the Clifton Star ground - possibly twice that.

While the market has been awaiting drilling results for the Clifton Star project the stock price has drifted, despite other gold stocks performing better along with the gold price - but now Osisko has started releasing some drilling results and promises a stream of further announcements as drilling progresses.

The first new results are promising.  In one of the drill holes values of 4.19 g/t gold over 27.5 metres were found and in another 58.2 metres of 1.12 g/t gold - but importantly most of the drill holes showed values above 1 g/t gold over decent widths and with some good higher grade material over smaller intervals too.  All the drill holes were relatively shallow - none extended below 500m - demonstrating excellent low grade open pit potential.

Clifton Star's Duparquet Project is located in the Abitibi region of Quebec, approximately 90 km northwest of Osisko's Canadian Malartic Project. It comprises two large property blocks that cover approximately 8 kilometres of strike length along the prolific Porcupine Destor Fault Zone, which has historically produced over 80 million ounces of gold. The properties host former producing underground gold mines (including the Beattie, Donchester and Duquesne mines which, collectively, produced over 1.5 million ounces of gold from 1933 - 1991) and two deposits with known gold resources (Central Duparquet and Dumico).

Osisko is now concentrating its drilling on another part of the property.

Overall, these initial Osisko drill results would appear to demonstrate good potential for significant expansion of the initial Clifton Star resource and is yet another example of the tremendous gold mining revival which is occurring in Quebec's old mining areas.