Corporate history
The company was incorporated on February 18, 1982, as Ormico Exploration Ltée but changed names to Osisko Exploration Ltée with its headquarters in Montreal. Its name derived from Osisko Lake, located within Quebec's portion of the Abitibi gold belt in the region of Rouyn-Noranda is where, in 1920, Noranda founder Edmond Henry Horne made his first major mineral discovery, a deposit that became known as the Horne Mine.
Its shares were publicly listed on the Montreal Stock Exchange and then the TSX Venture Exchange. It did business as a mineral exploration company with a focus on Quebec properties. It acquired rights to the properties, conducted exploration work and assessed mineral development potential. In November 2004 they acquired the Canadian Malartic property, a former mine that Lac Minerals had operated. Barrick Gold, who had acquired Lac Minerals, sold the property to McWatters Mining and Osisko acquired it from creditors after McWatters Mining went bankrupt. As favourable exploration, feasibility and economic assessment results came in, re-development of the Malartic mine became the focus of the company. The Canadian Malartic mine was expected to be the biggest gold mine ever in Quebec and one of the biggest gold mines in Canada.[10]
In 2009, the company's management received the Northern Miner's Mining Persons of the Year award[11] and in December 2009, the Company and Robert Wares, Osisko's COO, together donated 4.1 million dollars' worth of shares in the company to the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University.[12]
On July 3, 2009, Osisko purchased 49.1% of Bowmore Exploration Ltd. a month before Goldcorp acquired a 3.2% interest in Osisko (at the time Goldcorp owned 12.9% of company shares); On February 9, 2011, Goldcorp sold its 10.1% equity interest in Osisko for $530 million.[13][14][15][16] Later that year in December, in a joint venture with Clifton Star Resources Osisko acquired Quebec's Duparquet mining project, an area that produced 1 e6ozt of gold between 1931 and 1957, when it was operated by Beattie Gold Mine.[17] So far the company has infused $66.83 million into the venture.[18][19] On June 17, 2011, it withdrew from Duparquet.
In March 2010 Osisko filed a takeover offer for Brett Resources that proved to be success on May 19, 2010 (initially 77% of the company was purchased, on August 13 it purchased the other 23%).[20][21][22] The deal, valued at more than $372 million, enabled Osisko to acquire the Hammond Reef Gold Project in Atikokan near Thunder Bay, Ontario and its 6.70 e6ozt of gold.[23][24][25][26] If all regulatory approvals are met, the mine was expected to open in 2015 when it would be capable of producing 463,000 ozt of gold annually.[27]
By March 2011 It owns at least 17.41 e6ozt of gold reserves (including 10.71 in malartic and 6.7 at Hammond Reef, malartic reserves up 20% due to higher gold prices)[28][29] and over 230 km2 of land in the Malartic-Cadillac area.[18]
In December 2012 Osisko Mining completed the $550 million takeover of Ontario mining company Queenston Mining.[30] Just three months earlier Queenston announced a 112% increase in gold resource. Queenston's main property is the Upper Beaver project located near Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The Upper Beaver mine will have a mine life of ten years and is projected to start operating in 2016.[31]
In April 2014, it was revealed in the media that Yamana Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited could acquire Osisko's flagship Canadian Malartic mine for around $3.5 billion.[32]
