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For West Red Lake Gold Mines the goal line is in sight!

Dec 6, 2023


Red Lake has an incredible history of producing high grade long life gold mines. The area has been mining gold for over 100 years and it looks like it is not slowing down any time soon. The highly productive Red Lake Gold District of Northwest Ontario, Canada has yielded over 30 million ounces of gold from high-grade zones and hosts some of the world’s richest gold deposits.
West Red Lake Gold Mines (WRLG) is picking up where it’s predecessor PureGold has left off. Sitting with a new mine and mill and a defined gold zone, PureGold stumbled at the 1 yard line. This is where WRLG has picked up the project and plans to bring it past the goal line. 
Acquisitions like this (the PureGold Madsen Mine and Mill) just don’t happen. Imagine walking into a brand new mine and mill that would take a decade or decades to produce. The opportunity is huge and West Red Lake Gold Mines is up to the task.
“The 47 square kilometre land package that WRL acquired is a buffet of opportunity in an area where exploration had been neglected. With the right approach and the time that WRL is willing to take to develop this property, there is nothing but endless opportunity to grow this mine and the surrounding area,” stated Jillian Christmann, West Red Lake Chief Geologist. 
WRLG will do a long-term plan of engineering studies and plan for a restart of the operation. WRLG understands that management is vitally important for the operation to succeed. This is why they brought in Shane Williams, (B. Eng. M. Sc) as President and CEO as he understands underground mining and he has a track record to prove it. 
Prior to joining West Red Lake, Mr. Shane Williams was the Chief Operating Officer for Skeena Resources where he was involved in advancing the past producing Eskay Creek Gold project towards a restart. Between 2013-2019 he was Vice President of Operations and Capital Projects at Eldorado Gold where under his leadership the Lamaque Gold project was brought from Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) to commercial operation in just 18 months. He also served as Project Director for Eldorado Gold for their Greek assets and was responsible for the development of both the Skouries and Olympias projects which together had a capex of over US$1B. 
“In most operations when a new mine fails it’s due to something that is unfixable, but here there is no unsolvable problem, there was just money and some approach issues and those things are solvable,” stated Gwen Preston an independent mining analyst with Resource Maven.
“It’s very rare you have an opportunity where you have all the infrastructure in place, a lot of underground development, a mill in place, a water treatment plant, permits in place and a lot of key elements in place that you want to build a successful mining operation,” stated Shane Williams.
Recently WRLG released an update on the Madsen and Rowen Mine projects and the company’s path forward. The path forward will see an additional 35,000 metre (“m”) drill program planned for Rowan Property to commence in early 2024, adding a second drill and to include systematic in-fill drilling and expansion drilling of high-grade zones and begin testing high priority drill targets at Mt. Jamie, Red Summit and the NT Zone. The company plans to complete the initial Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) on entire portfolio of Properties by Q2 2024 (based on drilling cutoff date of Oct 1, 2023) and complete an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) at Rowan by Q4 2024 (to include all anticipated drilling up to Q3 2024).
WRLG will complete a 3,000 m drill program at Wedge, aimed to expand the deposit and complete an MRE by Q4 2024. The company will complete 38,000 m of underground drill program at Madsen Mine by Q4 2024, complete 3,200 m of underground development for access and required infrastructure to support underground drilling, develop a connecting ramp between the East and West declines at Madsen to increase waste hauling capacity from the West ramp which previously crossed two public roads, further reducing operating costs and put the Madsen Mine back into production in 2025.

West Red Lake Gold Mines map
A few notable highlights from 2023 drilling at Rowan include:
Hole RLG-23-163B Intersected 8.3 m @ 70.80 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) from 387 m to 395.3 m. This interval also included 0.5 m @ 1,120.19 g/t Au and represents the highest-grade intercept ever drilled at the Rowan project.
Hole RLG-23-149B Intersected 4.0 m @ 50.52 g/t Au, from 299 m to 303 m.
Hole RLG-23-153 Intersected 2.0 m @ 66.66 g/t Au, from 235 m to 237 m
Hole RLG-23-134 Intersected 8.0 m @ 10.34 g/t Au, from 71 m to 79 m
Hole RLG-23-156B Intersected 3.11 m @ 21.84 g/t Au, from 275 m to 278.11 m
Hole RLG-23-150 Intersected 4.2 m @ 15.40 g/t Au, from 384 m to 388.2 m
Hole RLG-23-154 Intersected 10.1 m @ 6.27 g/t Au, from 214.9 m to 225 m

Rowan Property
The 2023 drilling program at Rowan has been incredibly successful thus far. As such, the originally planned 17,000 m of drilling at the Rowan Mine target was expanded to 25,000 m and the team is on track to complete all planned drilling at Rowan. The mineralized set of veins at Rowan continues to deliver high-grade gold assays over significant widths that are in-line with or exceed those modeled in the December 2022 resource estimate. 
On October 11th the company reported additional drill results from its Rowan Property. Notably, Hole RLG-23-169 intersected 14.61 grams per tonne (“g/t”) Au, over 1.5 m, including 42.62 g/t Au over 0.5m at approximately 420m vertical depth in the Vein 101 Zone. This represents an 84m down-dip extension to the previously reported 70.80 g/t Au over 8.3m in RLG-23-163B and demonstrates the down-dip continuity of this high-grade zone, which remains open at depth. 
The strategy at Rowan for the rest of 2023 will be to continue increasing confidence in the 827,462 ounces (“oz”) Inferred resource through systematic in-fill drilling and look to step out and expand the Rowan resource by targeting mineralization outside of the current model and testing the down-dip and down-plunge extensions of the high-grade zones. With the plan of staying aggressive with the exploration strategy at Rowan in 2024, the company will look to add a second drill early in 2024. The goal is to advance the Rowan Mine target, and begin testing high priority drill targets at Mt. Jamie, Red Summit, and the NT Zone. 
It is the Company’s belief that potential synergies could exist between the high-grade Rowan deposit and their flagship Madsen Mine. 
Management maintains a high degree of confidence in the merits of the Rowan deposit and has initiated necessary baseline environmental and archaeological assessments to begin moving the Rowan project towards an Advanced Exploration Permit status – this permit will be required prior to collection of a bulk sample at Rowan.

West Red Lake Gold Mines drilling locations
Madsen Satellite Targets and Regional Exploration
After successfully completing the acquisition of the Madsen Mine the exploration team undertook a detailed review of the property. Several promising targets were identified and prioritized with the Wedge target emerging as the highest priority target.
Previous drilling highlights from the Wedge target include.
Hole PG17-486 Intersected 10.33 m @ 24.94 g/t Au, from 16.67 m to 27 m
Hole PG17-467 Intersected 16.6 m @ 17.49 g/t Au, from 11.45 m to 28 m
Hole PG17-482 Intersected 14.4 m @ 8.35 g/t Au, from 28 m to 42.4 m
Hole PG19-643 Intersected 1 m @ 108.5 g/t Au, from 103 m to 104 m

It is said that most of the ground at Madsen remains underexplored and the geology team is already seeing a lot of opportunity for new discoveries across the district.

Madsen Project
Underground diamond drilling at Madsen has recommenced with a 38,000 m program that focused on infill and expansion of the high-grade portions of the Austin and South Austin zones. It is anticipated this drilling may define an inventory of high-confidence ore-grade (6-7 g/t Au) resource to serve as a starting point for a future restart plan. Additionally, underground development work is taking place at Madsen. 
Mine design and scheduling for the first 12 months have been completed with subsequent phases to be determined based on the findings of the initial underground drilling and exploration program. The first development cuts have been taken at Madsen to provide access to the areas where infill drilling has already been planned. Mine design and scheduling consider the requirements of the operations and geology teams to ensure a fully collaborative approach to advancing the project in a safe, efficient, and timely manner. Over the next 12 months, the Company will complete approximately 3,200 m of underground development to support engineering and geological programs. The company does not intend to conduct any stoping or commercial extraction for the next 12-15 months until the re-start strategy is significantly de-risked both technically and financially.
The Company will also develop a connecting ramp between the East and West declines. The current waste hauling at Madsen from the West ramp crosses two public roads (into Madsen town). This haul route is only allowed to be used during daylight hours. A connecting ramp would increase the number of hours the team can haul waste as well as eliminate double handling, thus reducing operating costs. It will also provide for increased safety for the surrounding community due to reduced traffic. 
Additional and ongoing activities at the Madsen Mine will include but are not limited to, shaft dewatering, water treatment and environmental monitoring.

Mineral Resource Update and PEA
The West Red Lake team has engaged SRK Consulting and put in place the necessary programs required to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment. The PEA will look to unlock and deliver robust economics by incorporating the Company’s entire portfolio of Red Lake assets which is made up of our Rowan Project and Madsen Mine with its accompanying satellite deposits.
Management firmly believes this approach is in-line with its vision for the Red Lake district and a potential Hub and Spoke model utilizing the Madsen processing facilities provides plenty of optionality and opportunity to greatly bolster the project economics.
West Red Lake intends to deliver this initial PEA by the end of Q2 2024. To achieve that milestone by the anticipated deadline the decision was made to establish an Oct 1, 2023, cut-off date for 2023 Rowan drilling data to be incorporated into this PEA. As such, the updated Rowan mineral resource estimate included in the upcoming PEA will be focused primarily on the high-grade East Zone, which has been the focus of drilling at Rowan so far in 2023 and is envisioned as the first area to be mined when production from Rowan commences. The PEA will then be followed up by a more comprehensive MRE update.
In the first 3 quarters of 2023, the company completed the successful 100% acquisition of the Rowan Gold Project from Evolution Mining. Appointment of new CEO, Shane Williams, to lead the Company, strengthened their Senior Management Team with the addition of a new CFO and new VPs of Exploration, Technical Services, Corporate Development, and Community Relations, increased board strength with key appointees including Tony Makuch, Duncan Middlemiss, and Hugh Agro. The company has also successfully completed the acquisition of their flagship Madsen Mine asset while concurrently raising C$ 25M. West Red Lake Gold Mines has successfully completed flow-through financing of C$7 million, to further strengthen their treasury position.
The company completed the Phase 1 Exploration Program at Rowan project and initiated the expanded Phase 2 drilling campaign. Results from drilling in 2023 have exceeded expectations and as a result the program was expanded from the originally announced 17,000 meters to 25,000 meters. That expanded program is well underway. The company initiated a surface drilling campaign at Wedge target – 2km southwest of Madsen Mine. The program consisted of 3,000 meters of drilling to upgrade and expand the existing resource at Wedge.
Shane Williams, President, and CEO commented: “The team has done a fantastic job since the beginning of 2023, achieving many major milestones in the relatively short life of the re-vamped West Red Lake Gold Mines.


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Mining Life & Exploration News - Fall 2023

 



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