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This article was published 15/7/2010 (3729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MALARTIC, Que. -- His home is surrounded by wasteland, his yard shakes from regular dynamite blasts, he has a wrecking ball knocking at his door, yet Ken Masse refuses to leave.

He is literally sitting on a gold mine. And he's determined to stop a multibillion-dollar project aimed at exploiting one of the biggest gold reserves in Canada. In his battle against a mining company, Masse is clearly the underdog. He doesn't have a lawyer, draws a momentary blank when asked for his age, and is constantly accompanied by a fast-talking, self-described billionaire adviser. But the man with a jungle of reddish beard said he's convinced he will succeed in his struggle to keep a mining company from digging under his Quebec town.

Masse's childhood abode in Malartic is all that stands in the way of production on what may be Canada's largest untapped gold deposit. For a year his house has been just about the only thing standing on the lunar landscape of what used to be the oldest district in town.

Lucrative offers to buy him out and an expropriation order have failed to move Masse from his mother's rickety house, which has been evaluated at $14,000. Masse, 35, claims his family has turned down offers of $100,000, $350,000 and $4 million from Osisko Mining Corp. in exchange for the property.

"The more they want to take it away from me, the more attached I get to it," said Masse, standing in front of the two-floor house, now encircled by six-metre-high mounds of grey sand and rock. "It's where I grew up and I wouldn't see myself letting it go... ."

Osisko reached deals with 204 of 205 homeowners in the area 550 kilometres northwest of Montreal to either relocate their houses or buy them out for prices above market value.

Masse says his decision to hold out is based on principle -- environmental concerns and the good of Malartic -- not on the desire for a bigger buyout.

The days of his oasis in the Malartic desert could be numbered. Last month, the Montreal firm sent Masse an expropriation order with the goal of clearing him out before the mine's planned June 2011 production start date.

Masse insists he's not going anywhere -- not for any price. Osisko won't discuss its negotiations with residents but indicates it has refused demands from Masse for $1 million. It also denies his claim he was offered $4 million.

Masse, a former town councillor, plans to fight the government-authorized expropriation in court on Sept. 8.

The unemployed father of four still hasn't hired a lawyer and is trying to secure a bank loan, but none of that dampens his optimism.

"We're going to win," he predicts.

Masse also has plans to launch a $205-million class-action lawsuit against Osisko and the Quebec government.

When the operation eventually closes, he fears the mining company will leave citizens with a polluted environment, a higher cost of living and a big empty hole in the ground.

"There were six mines here in the past, the six mines took everything and left and the town was in economic crisis," Masse said.

But most locals support the mine and the economic spinoffs it will bring to Malartic, the mayor says.

Andre Vezeau expects the project to create 480 direct jobs and another 400 indirect jobs in the declining community of 3,500. Osisko has already constructed a half-dozen institutions, including a school, a community centre and a seniors' residence.

"It's the city's renaissance," Vezeau said. "For the people of Malartic, it's a type of blessing, a second chance."

Vezeau is puzzled his former councillor has turned down offers believed to be much higher. "I personally think that this will end with his expropriation," said Vezeau, who received Masse's resignation from council last year in protest over the proposed mine.

Osisko rolled into town with plans to spend $1 billion to exploit a vast deposit of gold discovered beneath Malartic. The province gave the project its environmental approval last year.

Guy Morrissette, the only other councillor besides Masse to vote against the mine also has concerns. Unlike Masse, however, he concedes the mine might do some good. "The city of Malartic isn't made of gold, even if it's sitting on it."

-- The Canadian Press