History

Richmont is the 100% owner of the Francoeur property which covers 408.3 hectares and consists of 12 mining claims, 3 mining concessions and 4 mining leases. This property is located at 25 km west of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. There is no royalties or back-in-rights related to any of the claims, mining leases and mining concessions. Richmont is also the owner of the Arncoeur and Norex nearby properties which cover respectively the lateral and down-dip extension of the known gold mineralization.

The Francoeur property was staked for the first time in 1923 following a gold discovery which later became Zone No.1. A considerable amount of exploration and development work were carried out on the property since this discovery. Successive underground developments over the years have allowed the discovery of additional reserves along the Francoeur-Wasa shear zone and several orebodies were mined. Gold production totalled over 500,000 ounces of gold from approximately 2.6 million tonnes of ore with a recovered grade of 6.07 g/t of gold.

From 1991 to 2001, Richmont produced more than 345,000 ounces of gold from the No. 3 Deposit, one of the main ore body located in the Francoeur-Wasa shear-zone. Despite the discovery of the West Zone, the Francoeur Mine was closed in 2003, when the prevailing gold price was under US$300 per ounce.

The higher gold price over the last few years has convinced Richmont to re-assess the resources of the Francoeur Gold Project. In 2009, in order to update the information on the West Zone, Richmont realised a NI 43-101 compliant technical report.

Project schedule

After more than two months of preparation work, the dewatering of the mine begun in July, 2009 and is progressing well. This work is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.

Drift excavation to reach the West Zone will begin early in 2010, as soon as dewatering is completed. After a phase of definition drilling and stope preparation, gold production from the West Zone should begin early in 2011.

Based on current probable reserves, the Francoeur Project should be able to produce at a rate of 35,000 ounces of gold per year for an initial mine life of 4 years. Once the access will be available, Richmont will initiate an underground exploration and definition drilling program.

Probable Reserves of the Francoeur Gold Project, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec

Zone	Probable Reserves > 5.15 g/t Au			Probable Reserves 4.0 to 5.15 g/t Au			Total Probable Reserves
	Tonne (metric)	Au (g/t)	Ounces	Tonne (metric)	Au (g/t)	Ounces	Tonne (metric)	Au (g/t)	Ounces
Main	368,357	6.80	80,580	77,132	3.98	9,869	445,490	6.32	90,449
FW	139,320	9.09	40,698	15,512	3.64	1,816	154,831	8.54	42,513
North	14,260	7.94	3,641	1,083	4.17	145	15,343	7.68	3,786
Total	521,937	7.44	124,919	93,727	3.93	11,830	615,664	6.91	136,749

Click here to view the technical report.