West Red Lake Gold expects 2,500 oz gold recovery from Madsen mine, Ontario
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. [TSXV-WRLG; OTCQB-WRLGF] provided an update on the progress of its continuing Madsen mill cleanup and gold recovery program at its 100%-owned Madsen mine, located in the Red Lake gold district of northwestern Ontario, Canada.
The company carried out a preliminary phase of the Gold Recovery Program in late 2023 that recovered 415 troy ounces of gold with proceeds of approximately $750,000.
Based on the significant amount of gold recovered during the initial investigation, a second and more comprehensive phase of the Gold Recovery Program was initiated in early 2024 with a focus on the ball mills and the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills. The SAG mills are the primary or first stage grinder for material entering the mill, which is then followed by the secondary ball mills.
It is anticipated that the Company may recover at least 2,500 oz gold from the clean-up.
As part of the second phase of the Gold Recovery Program, the company has engaged a firm in February 2024 which specializes in gold mill cleanup and recovery. The Gold Recovery Program is expected to be completed by the end of May 2024.
Shane Williams, President & CEO, stated, “Less than a year after acquiring the Madsen Mine, we are already seeing real value being uncovered from this asset. Our immediate focus has been recovering gold throughout the Madsen processing plant with our second cleanup program nearing completion. With gold prices over US$2,300/oz, this material could be a potential one-off source of cash flow during 2024.”
It was known that the previous operator had reconciliation issues between the mined ore and the milled ore at the Madsen Mine.
After finding substantial gold locked up in the circuits during the preliminary phase of the Gold Recovery Program, the company launched a thorough technical investigation of the mill and mill workings to understand the degree to which this contributed to the previous operator’s reconciliation issues.
In certain locations on site, installation errors had created sizeable “gold traps”, resulting in a notable amount of gold remaining in these physical gold traps instead of making it through the mill. Gold was found physically trapped in ill-fitting liners in the ball mill, in the SAG mills and in uncleaned filters, all of which certainly would have impacted the previous operator’s reconciliation issues.
The WRLG Madsen Mine team is making adjustments to the mill workings and processes to ensure that similar loss will not be repeated.
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.
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.