The Caisse de d?(C)p??t et placement du Qu?(C)bec (CDPQ) has acquired an additional 1 million shares in Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM; US-OTC: OMZNF), which is developing two zinc mining camps in Canada.
The Quebec pension fund has been a strategic partner and shareholder in the junior since 2014, and purchased the additional shares this week from Osisko Metal's executive chairman, Robert Wares, who now owns 9.5% of the company.
Osisko Metals, which also listed on the OTCQX market this week, is advancing its flagship Pine Point project on the south shore of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, and its projects in the Bathurst mining camp of northern New Brunswick.
Pine Point is the largest high-grade pit-constrained zinc deposit in the country, with a 43-101 compliant inferred resource completed in December 2018, measuring 38.4 million tonnes grading 4.58% zinc and 1.85% lead.
In New Brunswick, its key Anacon project has a historic resource of 1.87 million tonnes grading 9.6% zinc and lead.
The company also owns 420 sq. km. covering 12 grass-roots zinc targets in Quebec.
Osisko Metals plans to decrease the drill spacing within Pure Point's inferred resource to 30 metres from the current drillhole spacing of between 40 and 60 metres. The company plans an exploration program to search for new mineralization and to focus below and along strike of the known mineralized horizons. The work program will include an airborne gravity survey. It recently completed a LIDAR topographic survey. Following the airborne gravity survey, the brownfield exploration campaign will investigate high-potential target areas, in addition to site-wide compilation of historic datasets.
News of CDPQ's investment sent Osisko Metals' shares up 5.5%, or 3 ?, in mid-morning trading to 58 ?. The company's shares are trading in a 52-week range of 46 ? to 70 ?. The junior has a $79-million market capitalization.