Gold Fields partners with Osisko to develop the Windfall project in Québec, Canada - Seite 2

Having carried out extensive due diligence, management interaction and site visits for just over a year, Gold Fields believes the Windfall Project is on track to become a high-quality, low-cost underground gold mine with a relatively small surface footprint and considerable growth prospects along strike and down plunge, well beyond delineated Mineral Reserves and the current 10 year projected mine life set out in Osisko’s December 2022 Windfall Feasibility Study.

Drawing on more than 20 years of successful brownfields exploration and reserve growth at its Western Australian operations, Gold Fields sees the potential for a similar path to emerge at the Windfall, Urban Barry and Quévillon belts. These gold belts bear striking similarities to Western Australia's highly productive greenstone gold belts and boast a growing number of exciting targets within Osisko’s extensive and underexplored land tenure.

To accelerate the next phase of discoveries, Gold Fields will fund the first C$75M over the next seven years, with the goal of fast-tracking exploration discovery and transitioning the Windfall, Urban Barry and Quévillon belts into premier, multi-decade mining operations. Property-wide regional and near-deposit exploration is already in progress, with 6 drills exploring targets developed by Osisko over the past 7 years, and include the Golden Bear, Fox and Shellian prospects. An initial exploration program developed by Osisko and Gold Fields includes $20 million dedicated to these and other targets in the coming 24 months.

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 our portfolio, thus enhancing the average asset quality of the Gold Fields portfolio. Further, a producing mine in Canada enhances the jurisdictional quality of our global footprint.