Gold Fields partners with Osisko to develop Windfall gold project in Canada
Johannesburg – Gold Fields Limited has announced a partnership with Osisko Mining to develop and mine the world class underground Windfall Project in Québec, Canada, now known as the Windfall Mining Group (Partnership). 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 (including exploration potential).
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 (Exploration Properties), 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.
Strategic rationale
This transaction will firmly deliver on Pillar 3 of the Gold Fields strategy of growing the value and quality of our portfolio of assets.
The Windfall Project and the Exploration Properties comprehensively tick Gold Fields’ key portfolio management criteria.
Gold Fields believes the projected 10-year LOM (based only on stated Mineral Reserves in the Windfall Feasibility Study) to be conservative. The average projected all-in-sustaining-cost (AISC), as per the Feasibility Study, of US$758/oz (C$985/oz) is expected to position Windfall as one of the lowest cost mines in its portfolio, thus enhancing the average asset quality of the Gold Fields portfolio.
Further, a producing mine in Canada enhances the jurisdictional quality of its global footprint.
