West Red Lake Gold Provides Update on Madsen Mine Restart Activities
October 31, 2024
Vancouver, British Columbia
West Red Lake Gold Provides Update on
Madsen Mine Restart Activities
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or the “Company”) (TSXV:
WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) is pleased to provide an update on restart readiness activities
at the Madsen Mine project in Red Lake, Ontario.
“Advancing multiple projects and goals simultaneously in preparation for restart means
the Madsen Mine site is a busy place, ” said Shane Williams, President and CEO. “ The
tailings dam lift is now complete and came in ahead of schedule and under budget, which
is a great example of how strong alignment and effective communication between
contractors, site personnel, and management can yield positive results . This
accomplishment sets the standard for delivery of all projects at the Madsen operation as
we move through the redevelopment phase and towards our goal of a full mine restart
next year.
“We look forward to issuing a pre-feasibility study in the coming weeks and then pushing
ahead to an official restart decision.”
Pre-Feasibility Study
The Company is working with SRK Consulting to complete a pre-feasibility study (“PFS”)
for the restart of the Madsen mine. The study is nearing completion; West Red Lake Gold
expects to announce PFS results within one month.
The PFS will be the basis of the Madsen Mine restart. Regulations require companies to
define initial reserves on a project via a PFS and this applies to the Madsen project today
under West Red Lake Gold. However, there are three reasons why the Company believes
the Madsen PFS will be an accurate, comprehensive, and sufficient plan for the mine
restart.
1. Real Costing: Operating underground at the Madsen Mine for the last year means
West Red Lake Gold has good understanding of real costs, from blasting, mucking,
and moving a tonne of material to running a consistent definition drill program to
operating the water treatment facility. In addition, the mill operated only two years
ago, so costs for that facility are also well understood. Most pre-feasibility studies
rely on estimates for key costs ; the Madsen Mine PFS will have actual costs for
most parameters.
2. Final Engineering: the Madsen Mine is essentially built. Most pre-feasibility studies
include as-yet unanswered questions on important aspects; examples include full
definition of processing flowsheets or mining methods or tailings facility design or
human resource requirements . With the mine having operated only a few years
ago and with West Red Lake Gold having studied and remedied many of the issues
from that period over the last 18 months , there are very few outstanding
engineering questions at Madsen.
3. Detailed Mine Plan : pre-feasibility studies are conventionally completed before
definition drilling into a deposit is complete. For underground mines, this means a
PFS predates a detailed mine desi gn, which is a list of stope -defined targeted
mining areas with engineered access . West Red Lake Gold has built a detailed
mine design for the first 18 months of operation (approximately 100,000 ounces of
production) and intends to have 24 months of stope- defined mineable inventory
defined prior to restart, which is targeted for mid -2025. This level of operational
readiness is unusual alongside a PFS.
Tailings Dam Lift
The project to increase the height of the tailings dam by four feet was completed on
October 8th, a week ahead of schedule. The total cost came in approximately 18% under
the expected budget.
This lift creates enough additional capacity in the tailings facility to accommodate more
than 5 years of mining at a rate of 800 tonnes per day, which is the nameplate throughput
of the Madsen mill.
FIGURE 1. Aerial view of the tailings dam lift project at completion.
Definition Drilling
Definition drilling continues at Madsen with two underground drills. The Company has
now completed approximately 42,500 metres of definition drilling since October 2023 ,
which has outlined over 100,000 ounces of mineralization within stope- defined mining
areas with engineered access as per the detailed mine plan.
Most of these metres were planned to tighten up spacing between intercepts that define
the mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Madsen project. The Company’s goal is to
tighten average drill hole spacing from twenty metres, which was the average distance
between holes included in the MRE when West Red Lak e Gold purchased the Madsen
project, down to six to eight metres, which the Company believes is a necessary drill
density to inform an accurate short range model upon which stopes can be engineered
with confidence.
The geology team ranked areas of the MRE down to 12 Level (approximately 600m depth)
based on gold grade, tonnage potential, and accessibility and prioritized accessible areas
with the highest grade and tonnage potential . The engineering team then planned out
underground development to position the drill for efficiently defining each area.
Drill programs are continuously monitored and managed by the on- site geology team.
The team makes decisions in real-time as drilling progresses, which may include adding
holes in an area that has returned positive results or extending holes beyond planned
length if geologic observations suggest mineralization beyond modeled domains.
FIGURE 2. Long Section View of Madsen deposit showing location of underground
drill bays relative to existing mineral resource. White dots mark past drill stations,
red dots mark current drill stations, and orange dots mark upcoming drill stations.
One drill is currently in the 09- 4026 drill bay on 9 Level to follow up on a prospective
growth area in South Austin that was previously drilled from 7 and 9 Levels (see 2024
news releases April 18th, and May 7th, and June 11th).
The second drill is currently testing the McVeigh zone from 3 Level following positive
results from 1 Level . The higher geologic complexity of McVeigh relative to other
mineralized zones at Madsen proved challenging for the prior operator but West Red Lake
Gold was able to incorporate learnings from those efforts into a new geologic model for
the McVeigh zone that has guided drills to strong gold intercepts in the Company ’s first
round of drilling there, including 107.6 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au) over 2.5 metres
(see news release August 12th, 2024) and 17.8 g/t Au over 5.5 metres (see news release
August 27th, 2024).
When the campaigns at these drill bays are complete, one drill will move back to the
Austin zone while the other moves to the deepest bay drilled to date, on South Austin.
The Company is excited to move its drills deeper because Madsen was mined only to the
7 Level during its inconsistent 1997-2014 operational period and only in McVeigh and the
top of South Austin in its 2020-2022 operational period. As such, the Madsen deposit has
seen less mining below 7 Level and th us offers potential to host larger areas of
mineralization and new discoveries than the areas higher up that have seen more mining.
Underground Development
West Red Lake Gold has ramped up from one to three development crews operating
underground at Madsen throughout 2024. Miners are creating access for definition drilling,
completing the Connection Drift, and creating access to multiple areas in advance of
mining, as well as starting the test mining program.
Year to date, the Company has completed 2,016 metres of underground development at
the Madsen Mine. The pace of development substantially increased in H2 with the
addition of new equipment and additional hires, and this will continue into 2025.
The Madsen mine has seen significant development by previous operators, starting with
the 1936 to 1972 operational period. In recent times, t he mine had 19,919 metres of
underground development from 2019 through 2022 that created access to multiple parts
of the Madsen resource. This significant amount of modern underground development is
fundamental to West Red Lake Gold’s restart plan and provides significant opportunities
for flexibility and optionality as the Company moves toward production.
Mill Pre-Commissioning
The Madsen mill has been in dry shutdown for 20 months. West Red Lake Gold is taking
a progressing approach t o preparing the mill for restart. This approach is expected to
have the mill available for restart in Q1 2025, so that the Company can turn it on when
stockpiles and mining reach levels to supply steady state mill feed.
Pre commissioning activities are well underway. Tailing pumps and discharge lines have
been commissioned, the reclaim water feed line and pump are recycling process water
through the mill, the carbon kiln has been brought up to operating temperature, the
flocculant system has been reassem bled, reagent sub systems are 60% complete, and
carbon-in-pulp and leach agitators have been bumped for rotation as a test of operational
readiness.
All senior mill staff positions have been filled, including mill superintendent, frontline
supervisors, co ntrol room operators, and the metallurgical team. Onboarding of these
staff members is on track for completion by November 30.
“Redrilling of the SAG mill liner bolt holes are a critical path task and this job will get
underway on October 25,” said David Towle, Mill Manager. “Installing the liner and lifter
packages for the SAG and ball mills are also key tasks, as is setting up the on -site
metallurgical lab for operational readiness and setting up and commissioning the primary
crusher, which is scheduled t o arrive on site this week. These are all part of our restart
plan, which has the mill ready to go in Q1 2025.”
FIGURE 3. Photograph of the interior of the Madsen Mill (upper level)
Test Mining
The test mining program is advancing the first set of development levels to access the
1099/1100 area.
“Once the first ore-bearing development headings are advanced, crews will commence
mining, utilizing both Longhole Stoping and Mechanised Cut and Fill ,” said Maurice
Mostert, Vice President of Technical Ser vices. “Test mining is planned for areas of the
mine where we want to test our ability to mine efficiently and safely adjacent to historic
stopes, in addition to proving our understanding of the geology.”
“All the stopes will be stockpiled separately, then batch processed when the mill is started
up next year so we can reconcile milled grades against the geologic model ,” Mostert
continued. “Our primary goal with the test mining phase is to establish, prior to production,
the mining practices that will keep our people safe and optimise the value of the Madsen
orebody.”
Propane Infrastructure
A project to improve the propane system at the Madsen Mine site is largely complete. The
project includes installation of a second 30,000-gallon tank and pipe reticulation through
the site, eliminating the need for small satellite tanks at each building.
The Company expects that this project, with a completed cost of $225,000, will generate
annual savings of approximately $800,000 through reduced propane deliver y costs
(larger volumes less often to one location) and through eliminating the need for an
employee dedicated to propane maintenance through the winter.
QUALIFIED PERSON
The technical information presented in this news release has been reviewed and
approved by Will Robinson, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for West Red Lake Gold
and the Qualified Person for exploration at the West Red Lake Project, as defined by NI
43-101 “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”.
The technical information pres ented in this news release has been reviewed and
approved by Maurice Mostert, P.Eng., Vice President of Technical Services for West Red
Lake Gold and the Qualified Person for technical services at the West Red Lake Project,
as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
MARKETING AGREEMENT
West Red Lake also announces that it has entered into a services agreement dated
October 25, 2024 with Creative Direct Marketing Group, Inc. (“CDMG”), for the provision
of certain marketing and investor relations services to be initiated October 31, 2024. (the
“CDMG Agreement”) for a term of three months expiring January 31, 2025. Under the
terms of the CDMG Agreement, CDMG will execute a customized marketing plan that
incorporate web design, search engine optimizat ion, digital marketing, social, targeted
display, and traditional media including direct mail . In consideration for services to be
provided by CDMG, the Company agreed to pay CDMG a retainer of US$1,073,860, of
which the Company has paid US$346,860 to date.
CDMG is a full-service marketing agency based out of Nashville, Tennessee. CDMG and
its principal, Craig Alan Huey ar e arm ’s length to the Company and hold no interest,
directly or indirectly, in the securities of the Company or any right to acquire such an
interest.
The CDMG Agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) final approval.
ABOUT WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company that is publicly traded
and focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the
associated 47 km 2 highly prospective land package in the Red Lake district of Ontario.
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. WRLG also holds the wholly owned Rowan Property in Red Lake,
with an expansive property position covering 31 km2 including three past producing gold
mines – Rowan, Mount Jamie, and Red Summit.
ON BEHALF OF WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES LTD.
“Shane Williams”
Shane Williams
President & Chief Executive Officer
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Gwen Preston
Vice President Communications
Tel: (604) 609-6132
Email: [email protected] or visit the Company’s website
at https://www.westredlakegold.com