West Red Lake Gold Reflects on Madsen Mine Achievements To Date With the Madsen Mine in Ontario, Canada, on track to start operating in a few months, West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or the “Company”)
April 9, 2025
Vancouver, British Columbia
West Red Lake Gold Reflects on Madsen Mine
Achievements To Date
With the Madsen Mine in Ontario, Canada, on track to start operating in a few months, West
Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or the “Company”) (TSXV: WRLG)
(OTCQB: WRLGF) looks back at 22 months of achievements that have brought the project to
this point.
“As we process our bulk sample - producing gold and further reinforcing that our systematic
approach will successfully deliver Madsen as a new, high -grade gold mine in Canada - it is
time to reflect on how West Red Lake has delivered on its goals, ” said Shane Williams,
President and CEO. “We bought a complicated asset, assessed needs, and got to work. We
stated specific goals and we have delivered on those goals. Our plan has always been to
restart Madsen as a sustainable mine and, with anticipated production just months away,
we are on track to deliver this project from purchase to production in only two years. ”
West Red Lake Gold completed the purchase of the Madsen Mine in June 2023. By October
2023 the Company published its first set of plans to advance Madsen and the nearby Rowan
project. In June 2024 the Company added detail to those plans through a list of projects
designed to advance Madsen to production in 2025.
Below are listed the stated operational goals and the accomplishments on each to date.
Goal Stated October 2023, Restated June 2024: Complete 39,000 metres (“m”) of
underground drilling by the end of 2024.
Accomplishment: From October 2023 through Q1 2025 , the Company has completed
88,191 metres of drilling from underground at Madsen . Approximately 90% of those
metres have been definition drilling, which references drillin g into known resources to
tighten drill hole spacing and upgrade confidence ahead of stope engineering. Not only does
the tight-spaced drilling increase confidence in the resource but i t also allows the team to
effectively define very high -grade zones of gold mineralization that may not be fully
represented in the life -of-mine resource model. A perfect example of this would be the
114.26 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) over 10.6m recently announced from South Austin
(see press release dated February 26, 2025). This high-grade panel between 8 Level and 10
Level (400m and 500m vertical depth) has seen very little historic development and is a near-
term focus for additional drilling.
Approximately 10% of the metres were focused on resource expansion targets, often with
good success. Most of the expansion metres were drilled in late 2023 and early 2024
targeting North Austin. Initial results were quite favorable including 27.15 g/t Au over 10.28m
and 22.31 g/t Au over 8.5m (see press release dated November 21, 2023). Additional drilling
at North Austin is planned for 2025 to continue extending this zone down plunge.
Goal Stated October 2023 : Complete 3,200 metres of underground development at
Madsen in 2024.
Accomplishment: West Red Lake completed 3,065 metres of underground development
at Madsen in 2024 . To date in 2025 the Company has completed another 1,178 metres.
These metres are in addition to the development of the Connection Drift.
Goal Stated June 2024 : Complete a Pre Feasibility Study (“PFS”) for the restart of the
Madsen Mine. Results were originally planned for release in November 2024; this timeline
was slightly extended to allow for further mine design optimization.
Accomplishment: the results of the PFS were published on January 7th. The PFS validated
the rationale to restart the Madsen Mine by generating strong economic results, including
almost $70 million in average annual free cash flow over 6 full production years.
West Red Lake has since described the PFS as the ‘base case’ for the Madsen Mine’s restart.
That statement stems from the conservative nature of the PFS, in particular that Reserves
were determined at a gold price of US$1,680 per oz. If all other modifying factors stay equal,
a higher gold price would result in a larger Reserve and more favourable mine economics.
Goal Stated June 2024, Refined September 2024: Initiate a test mining program to assess
longhole stope and cut -and-fill mining methods on the range of underground mining
scenarios at Madsen, as an essential step in derisking the return to mining.
Accomplishment: Six months of test mining successfully produced the bulk sample. The
test mining program has also provided indispensable knowledge of how to mine safely
and effectively at Madsen , which in -house mining crews will now take with them into
operations.
In addition, the test mining program proved the mineability of ore directly adjacent to historic
stopes. Lack of demonstrated mineability meant that ore adjacent to old stopes was at risk
of being unsafe or dilutive to mine. Test mining, in places, blasted directly up against old
stopes; the test was successful in that the stopes remained competent and the legacy
backfill remained in place , which mean t the area was safe to mine and the blasted
mineralization was not diluted.
Figure 1: Ore from Stope 3 of the bulk sample stockpiled on surface.
Goal Stated June 2024, Refined September 2024: Use a test mining program to generate a
bulk sample to enable a reconciliation test between expected and actual tonnes and
grade for planned stopes.
Accomplishment: A bulk sample program of 6 stope s totalling at least 15,000 tonnes is
almost complete. The sixth stope is currently being mined. Three of the six stopes have
been processed through the Madsen mill. Independent experts have observed the entire
project and will confirm the validity of the results, which will compare the tonnes and grade
expected in each stope (based on the Company’s detailed internal mine plan) with the
tonnes and grade actually mined. The Company expects to release these results by May.
Goal Stated October 2023, Refined June 2024 : Complete a 1,200 -metre haulage way
connecting the East and West Portals of the Madsen Mine by March 31st, 2025.
Accomplishment: The 1,448-metre Connection Drift was completed on March 28th. This
underground highway, as Vice President Technical Services Maurice Mostert describes it, is
an essential part of the Company’s plan to move material efficiently at the Madsen Mine. It
was the largest of the capital projects planned in support of restarting the Madsen Mine and
it was completed on time.
Figure 2: The face of the last blast for the Connection Drift.
Figure 3: The Connection Drift with blasting complete. The muck from the last blast is still
on the floor and the meshing and bolting from the west advance is visible from the east side.
Goal Stated June 2024: Complete a 4-metre tailings dam lift to ensure adequate capacity
to support tailings management.
Accomplishment: A 4-metre tailings dam lift was completed on October 8 th. This major
earthworks project was completed on schedule and under budget.
Goal Stated June 2024: Procure and install a camp to house 100 workers at the Madsen site.
Accomplishment: A 114-person camp opened for operation at the Madsen Mine on
March 18th, with junior suites, a cafeteria, a gym, and full staffing.
Goal Stated June 2024: Install a permanent primary crusher.
Accomplishment: A permanent primary crusher is operating at the Madsen Mine. A Terex
brand crusher with a nominal capacity of 145 tons per hour – well in excess of Madsen
current needs – was delivered to the mine site on November 5th, 2024. It was commissioned
and operational within two weeks.
Goal Stated June 2024: Procure, install, and staff a mine dry sufficient to support miners
of a full-operations Madsen mine team to transition in and out of shifts.
Accomplishment: The constructed mine dry received its occupancy permit on April 3 rd,
2025, and is now welcoming workers.
Figure 4: The main room of the men’s dry prior to occupancy.
Goal Stated June 2024: Continue dewatering the mine.
Accomplishment: Dewatering has almost reached level 17, an achievement of 70
vertical metres since dewatering started in the fall of 2023 . The 17 Level of the Madsen
Mine has not been dry since 1972. Dewatering to this level and beyond will enable the
Company to develop level access to large promising areas of the resource in preparation for
definition drilling and mining and to explore deeper areas of the mine where we have
evidence of both grade and tonnage extension.
Goal Stated June 2024: Install two evaporator fans with the ability to manage 2,000 cubic
metres of water daily, to increase overall water management capacity at the mine site.
Accomplishment: Two evaporator fans were installed and commissioned in the summer
of 2024.
Figure 5: Two evaporator fans operating over the polishing pond at the Madsen Mine
Goal Stated October 2023: Publish updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Rowan by Q4
2023.
Accomplishment: An updated MRE for Rowan was published in March 2024. The
Company is now completing an internal scoping study to evaluate the potential for a direct
shipping ore (“DSO”) scenario at Rowan.
Goal Stated October 2023: Restart the Madsen Mine in 2025.
Accomplishment: With the mill running smoothly, definition drilling and mine engineering
having outlined over 15 months of mine-ready tonnes, the Connection Drift complete,
mining crews operating effectively, development crews creating access to all needed
mining areas, staffing up to needed levels, maintenance working well, and stockpiles
underway, the Madsen Mine is on track to start operating by H2 2025.
Additional Accomplishments
West Red Lake has purchased and commissioned 19 major pieces of underground
equipment for mine operations, at a cost of $5.7 million. The rolling stock on site is now
sufficient for startup.
The Company implemented a new Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) system across the
business. An ERP system is the backbone of expenditure decisions and tracking within a
complex operation like a mine and such a system reaches into every key facet of the mine:
maintenance scheduling, supply procurement, personnel planning, capital project
management, and more. An ERP system fit to the task is essential for smooth mine
operations, which is why the Company dedicated significant time and effort to testing,
implementing, and training personnel on a robust new system.
There are now over 200 employees at the Madsen Mine. Establishing a workforce of this
scale spanning all roles with suitable aptitudes is a challenge. West Red Lake is glad to
have been able to work through this challenge over the last 18 months of active mine site
operations, as with that time the Company feels confident it has built a competent team to
deliver operationally at Madsen.
West Red Lake has dedicated significant effort to developing robust safety systems and a
strong safety culture at Madsen. Through 2024 the mine had a Total Reportable Incident
Frequency of 1.0, versus an Ontario mining average of 4.53. The Company is committed to
maintaining strong safety practices every day at Madsen.