Osisko Gold Group said it expects to satisfy the technical conditions attached to the remaining undrawn US$350 million of its senior secured project loan facility in the third quarter of 2026, following completion of infill drilling in the Lowhee Zone of its Cariboo Gold Project in central British Columbia.
That timing is not settled. According to the company, it depends on Appian Capital Advisory finishing its review of the underlying scientific and technical data and signing off, along with other conditions being met. Appian is reviewing the data now.
The drilling itself totalled 17,072 metres across 185 diamond drill holes completed in 2025 and 2026. Infill drilling means holes drilled between existing ones to tighten the spacing and test how consistent the mineralisation is at a scale relevant to mine planning, rather than to find new deposits.
Two areas were tested. Zone 1 accounted for about 11,925 metres drilled on 10-metre spacing at the 1260 elevation level; Zone 2 covered the remaining holes from the 1290 level.
Osisko Gold then compared stope optimisation results in those areas against its existing resource block model. A stope is the underground void from which ore is extracted. In Zone 1, the exercise indicated roughly 30% more tonnes and 6% more gold ounces, at a gold grade about 18% lower. In Zone 2, it indicated about 8% fewer tonnes and 8% more ounces, at a grade some 16% higher.
The company stresses that these figures are preliminary, internal, and not an updated reserve or resource estimate. They apply only to the two areas drilled and, the release states, should not be read as representative of the broader estimate in the June 2025 Cariboo feasibility technical report.
Osisko Gold's reading is that the variability seen falls within what it expected, and that the results support continued use of its existing geological and mine-planning assumptions, subject to further work. Some areas ended up with more stopes at lower grades, others with stable stope counts at higher average grades.
One technical caveat is disclosed. Average core recovery — the proportion of rock retrieved intact from a drill hole — was about 92% in 2025 and about 94% in 2026. The company notes that lower recovery tends to occur in mineralised intervals and can degrade results. It plans further work on short-term model methodology, including search parameters and grade capping.
Cariboo holds probable mineral reserves of 2.071 million ounces of gold, grading 3.62 g/t. The project received its Mines Act and Environmental Management Act permits in late 2024. Results were reviewed and approved by Scott Smith, P.Geo., the company's vice president of exploration.
Source: GlobeNewswire
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