West Red Lake Gold unveils 2024 exploration strategy for Madsen and Rowan

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. has announced its 2024 strategy for regional exploration  activities across its 100% owned Madsen and Rowan Properties, both located in the Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario.  

HIGHLIGHTS:  

• Regional mapping and geochemical sampling at Madsen with a focus on the  Confederation Assemblage of rocks, which has seen very little exploration work since  2014 (Figures 1 & 2). 

• Expected to commence in May 2024. 

• Up to 15,000m of surface drilling to be completed at the Rowan Mine deposit with focus  on growth and expansion on the existing high-grade mineral resource (Figure 4) - as previously announced on April 26, 2024. 

• This drill program is fully funded up to C$4.5M and is expected to commence in  early June. 

• Regional mapping and geochemical sampling across Rowan property to start generating  new targets for potential future drill testing. 

• Expected to commence in June 2024. 

Will Robinson, Vice President of Exploration, stated, "Our team is very excited to get back out  into the field in 2024 at our Madsen and Rowan properties. The underground drills at Madsen will continue de-risking the resource while taking full advantage of near-mine expansion  opportunities, while our field crews will be focused on reconnaissance-level work within the  greater Madsen land package to continue generating and advancing new targets for the  exploration pipeline. Of particular interest is the exploration potential that could exist within the  Confederation package of rocks which remains mostly unexplored but represents approximately  50% of the land package at Madsen. We have enough geologic evidence from previous work to  demonstrate the prospectivity within the Confederation rocks and we aim to gain a better understanding of the mineralizing controls and economic potential over this part of the Madsen land package. With drills soon to be turning at both of our Red Lake properties we look forward  to delivering a steady stream of positive results throughout 2024.” 

FIGURE 1. Plan map showing density of surface sampling data collected during 2014-2022  across the Madsen property. Note the paucity of data within the Confederation Assemblage of  rocks leaving this area mostly unexplored. 

DISCUSSION 

Most historic exploration work and drilling across the Madsen property, and within the greater  Red Lake district, has been almost exclusively focused on the Balmer Assemblage of rocks. The  Confederation rock package was mostly ignored and considered non-prospective for hosting  significant gold mineralization. The discovery of the LP Fault and Hinge Zones at Dixie Lake in  2016 (24km SSE of Madsen) forced the geologic community to re-evaluate this narrative, and the  WRLG exploration team is taking full advantage of the exploration potential that still exists within  the Confederation rocks at Madsen – which cover approximately 50% of the 47 square kilometer  (“sq. km.”) land package and remain mostly unexplored. 

A full-scale regional program over the Confederation rocks has been planned for the 2024 field  season which will include detailed geologic mapping and geochemical sampling to begin unlocking the full exploration potential of the entire Madsen property (Figure 2). Mapping and  sampling within the Confederation will be focused on three main areas: 

1) North Shore 

• Poorly mapped area in highly favorable geologic setting between Russet Lake  ultramafic and Balmer-Confederation unconformity. 

• South of this zone, multiple mineralized shears crosscut stratigraphy (eg. Austin  Zones, Starratt, Wedge, Fork, etc.). 

• Focus will be on exploration for additional similar shear zones. 

2) Confederation North 

• This area remains mostly untested. 

• Hosts some known mineral occurrences such as the high-grade #1 Vein, which was  the original area being mined at Madsen before discovery of the surface expression  of the Austin Zone. 

• Objective will be to search for manifestation of known shear zones in the Balmer (eg.  Starratt, Madsen, Derlak, etc.) projected into favorable contacts and geologic settings within the Confederation. 

3) Confederation South 

• Hosts some known occurrences such as historic Faulkenham shaft. 

• Focus will be on mafic-felsic contact areas. 

This strategy is representative of WRLG’s systematic and disciplined approach to exploration and  target generation.

Figure 2. Plan map showing the proposed layout of soil sampling and reconnaissance grids at  Madsen. The North Shore grid area is denoted by green sample sites. The Confederation North  grid area is denoted by red sample sites. The Confederation South grid area is denoted by  purple sample sites.  

At the Rowan property, there has been very little regional exploration work completed since the  1980’s and early 1990’s when Goldquest Exploration, Inc. (which eventually amalgamated with  Goldcorp, Inc.) conducted a number of regional exploration campaigns that included mapping,  sampling, dozer stripping and drilling. Since that time, most of the work completed on the  property has consisted of various drill programs at the Rowan Mine, Mount Jamie Mine, Red  Summit Mine and along the NT Zone. 

WRLG completed a preliminary orientation till sampling survey at Rowan in 2023 that consisted  of 334 till samples collected on 50m spaced north-south lines, and 100m spaced east-west lines  (Figure 3). Samples were collected using “Dutch” style hand augers with a maximum 2m sampling  depth possible. OREAS 46 certified reference material (CRM) and duplicate field samples were  inserted into the sequence at a 5% rate for each QA/QC sample type in the field. Post-field  collection, samples were transported to ALS Vancouver for preparation and analysis. All samples  were dried to 60°C to reduce loss of volatile mercury and arsenic, sieved to -180 +63 micron (µm)  and -63 µm fraction data subsets before undergoing AR_ICP-MS digestion and analysis.

Review of assay data shows both datasets returned high quality, usable data, with the -63 µm  dataset returning a preferential return in quality based on cumulative frequency probability plots  and Tukey plotting of gold and pathfinders in parts per million (ppm) values. Exploratory Data  Analysis via PCA was conducted on both data subsets and the components display both  geochemical associations that reflect local geology and also zones of exploration potential.  Glacial drift is proposed to be in the magnitude of 100m to 300m towards south by southwest  across the Property based on the geological associations shown in the PCA compared to mapped lithologies. Based on the positive results of the initial 2023 soil sampling survey, the grid will be  expanded in 2024 to cover more prospective areas across the Rowan property. 

For more information on the exploration history at the Rowan Property please refer to the  technical report entitled “Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Rowan Property, Ontario,  Canada” dated April 26, 2024 prepared for WRLG by Sims Resources, LLC.

FIGURE 3. Thematic map showing Au-in-till results from 2023 orientation till sampling program at Rowan.

FIGURE 4. Rowan Deposit longitudinal section showing high-priority expansion target areas for 2024 drill program[1]. Drill intercepts shown  in this figure have been composited to 2m intervals. 

1 Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.8 g/t Au and using a gold price of US$1,800/oz. Please refer to the technical report entitled “Updated Mineral  Resource Estimate for the Rowan Property, Ontario, Canada” dated April 26, 2024 prepared for WRLG by Sims Resources, LLC.

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