VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canada's Osisko Mining plans to update the feasibility study for its flagship Canadian Malartic project, in northern Quebec, by the third quarter of this year, COO Robert Wares said at an industry conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.

The updated study will include a higher gold price of $925/oz , he said in a presentation to the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum conference.

The $1-billion project is on schedule and within budget, and remains on track for commercial production by the end of the second quarter of 2011, Wares reported.

The Canadian Malartic mine is expected to produce an average of at least 630 000 oz/y of gold and 800 000 oz/y of silver for more than 12 years, although the company is considering an increased throughput rate a couple of years after starting up.

The operation will involve a large super pit, for which Osisko had to relocate part of the town of Malartic - more than 150 homes and five institutional buildings were relocated to make way for the mine.

The Canadian Malartic project currently has nine-million ounces of reserves, plus another 2,2-million ounces in measured and indicated resources.

The project is fully financed and permitted.

Osisko announced in March it had agreed to buy Brett Resources, which has a gold project in Ontario, in a friendly transaction.

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