THUNDER BAY – MINING – West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or the “Company”) (TSXV: WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) is pleased to provide an operations update on restart readiness activities at its 100% owned Madsen Mine project in the Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
“As we push towards our goal of restarting the Madsen Mine next year, the team continues to make great progress on achieving key operational readiness milestones,” said Shane Williams, President and CEO. “Access development for test mining has been underway since late summer, putting us on the edge of mining. The bulk samples generated through the test mining program will be stockpiled on surface and then batch processed. Meanwhile the Connection Drift, primary crusher, and camp projects are being completed on schedule while definition drilling and mine planning and optimization continue.
“The entire WRLG team has been collectively working towards a successful restart of the Madsen mine. We are now approaching the finish line on many of the fundamental pieces that support this goal, including final optimization on the pre-feasibility study, completing key capital projects, mining our first underground stopes, and starting up the mill. It is a very exciting time for WRLG as we make the transition from developer to producer.”
Connection Drift 50% Complete
The Connection Drift, the largest of the capital projects supporting restart of the Madsen Mine, is 50% complete and is on track for completion by the end of March 2025.
The Connection Drift is a 1.2-km haulage way connecting the historic West Portal, which through extensive underground workings provides access to most parts of the Madsen mine including the Austin, South Austin, and McVeigh zones, and the East Portal, a modern portal from which development only extends a modest distance into the North Austin area.
The prior operator developed the East Portal and workings early in its construction effort but soon shifted to the less capital-intensive approach of using the historic West Portal.
West Red Lake Gold found notable inefficiencies in using the West Portal for moving mined material, including:
- The portal is relatively small, limiting hauling to 30-tonne trucks.
- The haulage ways descending from the West Portal were developed over many years of historic operations; an array of steep sections and sharp corners make the route relatively inefficient for trucking.
- The route from the portal to the mill crosses two public roads and goes past the town of Madsen. Material must be dumped out of underground haul truck and reloaded into surface-insured trucks and only hauled during daylight hours (because of noise restrictions) to use this route.
- Much of the resource at Madsen sits spatially under the mill. Moving it west to bring it up through the West Portal and then driving it back east to the mill adds kilometres of trucking distance.
The East Portal, by contrast, is a large portal with modern workings. It can accommodate 60-tonne trucks, the haulage route within the mine was designed with efficiency in mind, and the East Portal is beside the primary crusher, which is close to the mill.
The Connection Drift will allow West Red Lake Gold to move all mined material out through the East Portal, eliminating the inefficiencies of the West Portal (which will remain open for ventilation and emergency access).
West Red Lake Gold raised $10 million in Canadian Development Expense flow through funds to finance this major project. Work started in August 2024.
“The Connection Drift is a key project as we prepare to mine, for several reasons,” said Maurice Mostert, Vice President Technical Services. “It is creating an efficient way to move material, the effort to develop it is giving our mining teams valuable experience working accurately and effectively underground at Madsen, and it is unlocking the potential to drill test some prospective targets.
“Investing in capital projects to create an efficient operation before we restart this mine is one of the key pillars of our Madsen thesis, which is that an efficient mine tapping a well-drilled and understood resource in appropriate ways will be very much worth the effort.”
The Connection Drift is on track for its targeted completion date in late March. To date 604.8 metres have been completed, of the 1.2 km total length.
Figure 1. A view of the Connection Drift, which is progressing west to east. This 1.2-km haulage way is now 50% complete.
Primary Crusher Commissioned
The primary crusher was delivered to the Madsen Mine site on November 5, 2024. It was unloaded, assembled, and has now been commissioned.
“A fully functioning and reliable primary crusher is a good example of the kind of capital investments we are making to support efficient operations when we restart the Madsen Mine,” said Williams. “It is exciting to see the crusher processing material as we commission this key piece of infrastructure.”
Figure 2. The CRJ3042 Electric Primary Jaw Crushing Plant being commissioned at the Madsen Mine site in late November.
Camp Installation
The camp was delivered on November 11, 2024 and is now being installed at the Madsen Mine site.
The camp is a 114-person facility. It offers individual rooms with ensuite bathrooms for each worker, a kitchen and dining hall, and recreation space.
Horizon North, an industry leader in providing accommodations and services to meet workforce requirements within the mining industry in Canada, supplied and will staff the camp facility.
Figure 3. The 114-person workforce accommodations facility for the Madsen Mine project during the unloading and installation process.
QUALIFIED PERSON
The technical information presented 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.
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 km2 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: investors@wrlgold.com or visit the Company’s website at https://www.westredlakegold.com
