Quebec is setting up a committee to evaluate the benefits of reviving the Murdochville copper mine – closed for more than 20 years – while Osisko Metals wants to bring it back to life by banking on the growing demand for the ore resulting from the green transition.
Posted at 10:54 a.m.
Updated at 4:26 p.m.
The Quebec government announced Monday the creation of a “maximization committee” whose mission will be to gauge the economic and social benefits for the region of the relaunch of the Murdochville copper mine.
“What we have just done is to bring about a rapprochement between regional economic players and the mining company so that we can have leverage with the reopening of the mine”, indicates to The Press the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, also minister responsible for the Bas-Saint-Laurent region and the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region.
The announcement comes as the Montreal mining company Osisko Metals plans to relaunch activities at the site purchased in 2022 by 2031. In a context of electrification and energy transition, copper is considered critical. There is also a deposit of molybdenum on the site, a by-product considered strategic in several sectors.
Osisko Metals plans to conduct other studies by 2027 to ensure the viability of the project, currently in the advanced exploration phase.
“This is an important project because we are talking about copper which is a strategic and critical mineral for the development of sectors linked to green energies, but also, in general, in electrical networks,” says Mme Blanchette Vézina.
The realization of this mining project could, in the long term, contribute to securing our supplies.
Maïté Blanchette Vézina, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, in a press release
In the spring, Osisko Metals revised the potential of its mine upwards. In an update of its estimates, the company then maintained that the copper equivalent content had increased by 30% compared to previous estimates which date back to 2022.
A number of infrastructures, already on site, would facilitate exploitation. Route 198 which connects Murdochville to the coast provides access to the port of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, located 100 kilometers away. Hydro-Québec also serves the location with an electrical station which provides energy.
Copper and the green transition
Electrification and the transition to renewable energies are already greatly stimulating demand for copper. The ore is used in the wiring of electrical networks as well as in several components of solar panels as well as hydroelectric and wind turbines. It is necessary for the manufacture of energy storage solutions, such as batteries for electric vehicles.
