Osisko amends silver stream agreement with Taseko
Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. (OR-TSX, OR-NYSE) said it has completed an amendment to its silver stream associated with the Gibraltar copper mine in British Columbia, which is operated by a subsidiary of Taseko Mines Ltd. [TKO-TSE]
Osisko and Taseko have amended the Silver Stream to increase Osisko’s attributable silver percentage by 12.5% to 100%. Further to this, Osisko and Taseko have also extended the step-down silver delivery threshold to 6.81 million ounces delivered, accounting for Osisko’s additional silver ownership.
In exchange for these amendments, Osisko has paid an additional deposit amount of US$12.7 million to Taseko. These amendments were concluded further to the announcement by Taseko back in March, 2024, that it had entered into a definitive agreement to consolidate a 100% interest in Gibraltar by acquiring the remaining 12.5% interest from Dowa Metals & Mining Ltd. and Furukawa Co. Ltd.
Osisko shares edged up 0.46% or 12 cents to $26.30. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $29.57 and $17.41.
Osisko is an intermediate precious metal royalty company with a focus on the Americas. The company holds a North American focused portfolio of over 185 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes. Osisko’s portfolio if anchored by its cornerstone asset, a 5.0% net smelter return royalty on the Canadian Malartic Complex in Quebec, one of Canada’s largest gold mines.
Taseko is a Vancouver-based company with a portfolio that includes the Gibraltar mine, the Florence Copper Project in Arizona, and the New Prosperity copper-gold project, which is located near Williams Lake, B.C.
The Gibraltar mine produced 27 million pounds of copper in the third quarter of 2024 and 421,000 pounds of molybdenum. Copper production and mill throughput were impacted by nearly three weeks of downtime at Concentrator #1 at the beginning of the quarter to complete the crusher location project, concurrent mill maintenance, and the ramp back up to full capacity.
Gibraltar ranks as the second largest open-pit copper mine in Canada and the largest employer in British Columbia’s Cariboo region.
Gibraltar has a processing capacity of 85,000 tonnes per day and life of mine average annual copper production of 130 million pounds. Following a series of investments by Taseko to expand and modernize the mine, it has operated responsibly across multiple market cycles for the past two decades.
Separately, Osisko has announced the successfully closing of its transaction to acquire a 1.8% gross revenue royalty on the Dalgaranga gold project operated by Spartan Resources Ltd. in Western Australia for US$44 million, as originally announced back in September, 2024. Osisko’s complementary transaction to acquire a 1.35% gross revenue royalty on additional regional exploration licenses in proximity to Dalgaranga for US$6.0 million has also closed.