TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Quebec-based miner Osisko Mining on Monday announced that it had settled a lawsuit against gold major Goldcorp, which in January launched a C$2.6-billion unsolicited cash-and-stock takeover bid.

Under the terms of the settlement, Goldcorp agreed not to take up and pay for shares deposited to its hostile takeover bid before April 15.

In return, Osisko agreed to waive the application of its shareholder rights plan before April 15, to provide Goldcorp access to due diligence materials and to terminate its court proceeding against Goldcorp.

Osisko rejected a hostile takeover bid by Goldcorp in January, and had launched a legal challenge to Goldcorp's bid, accusing the company of breaking a confidentiality agreement and failing to honour a verbal agreement to extend an expired standstill agreement.

Osisko underlined that it was continuing to manage a “robust” process to aggressively pursue a range of value maximising alternatives that were in the best interests of the company, the Osisko shareholders and other stakeholders; however, no alternative transaction could be closed before April 15.

"Given the robustness of our process to pursue value maximising alternatives, the extension to April 15 provides a meaningful extension to the anticipated time to complete this work. The … date also provides certainty of timing for those in the process to complete their work and propose executable arrangements to unlock value for all stakeholders.

“Goldcorp has had extensive historic due diligence up until last fall, and this agreement will also allow them to refresh their views,” Osisko president and CEO Sean Roosen said.

The proposed deal would give Goldcorp control over Osisko's flagship Canadian Malartic mine, which was expected to produce an average of between 500 000 oz and 600 000 oz of gold a year, over a 16-year mine life. It is located in the abundant Abitibi mining district and began commercial production in May 2011. In 2013 , the mine produced 475 277 oz of gold at an estimated cash cost of C$760/oz, compared with 388 478 oz at a cash cost of C$849/oz in 2012.