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Osisko gains a toehold in Hemlo

Montreal gold miner acquiring Beaufield Resources
Beaufield 1

Osisko Mining stands to establish a presence on the north shore of Lake Superior.

The Montreal precious metals company announced Aug. 14 that it’s acquiring Beaufield Resources, a gold, base metal and iron explorer with properties in Ontario and Quebec.

Most of Beaufield’s exploration properties are in western Quebec, including its flagship Urban-Windfall, northeast of Val d’Or, which is next to Osisko’s Windfall/Lynx project in the Abitibi gold belt.

But Beaufield also has a 3,488-hectare gold property on the north shore of Lake Superior, 15 kilometres west of Barrick’s Hemlo gold complex.

Barrick reportedly has its Hemlo mine complex on the selling block, among a raft of other properties, that it intends to shed in favour of low-cost assets that have production longevity.

The proposed Osisko-Beaufort deal is being promoted as an opportunity for Beaufield shareholders to participate in Osisko’s cornerstone Windfall gold project in Quebec.

“By joining Osisko in our large scale exploration and development program at Windfall, Beaufield Shareholders have the opportunity to capitalize on the strong premium offered today and to benefit from the future growth of our project,” said Osisko president-CEO John Burzynski in a statement.

“We are very pleased to be joining forces with Osisko, which continues to demonstrate its leadership and strength in advancing its portfolio of resource projects including the flagship Windfall district,” said Beaufield president-CEO Ron Stewart.

“We believe the combination of our projects will provide benefit to the shareholders of both companies and look forward to participating in the future success of Osisko.”

In the proposed transaction, Beaufield shareholders will receive 0.0482 of a common share of Osisko for one Beaufield share, representing an implied offer price of $0.082 per Beaufield share based on Osisko’s closing price on Aug. 14. A special meeting of Beaufield shareholders will take place sometime in October.