Wesdome Gold Mines drills 55.6 g/t gold over 3.5 metres at Kiena, Quebec

Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. [TSX-WDO; OTCQX-WDOFF] provided an update regarding its underground exploration activities at the 100%-owned Kiena mine in Val d’Or, Quebec.

Highlights include: Kiena Deep – Footwall Zone: The latest drilling results have continued to better define the Footwall Zone:

Hole N127-6913: 55.6 g/t Au over 3.5 m core length (25.7 g/t Au capped, 2.0 m true width). Hole N127-6912: 13.8 g/t Au over 11.1 m core length (13.8 g/t Au capped, 5.0 m true width); and 22.0 g/t Au over 6.7 m core length (19.6 g/t Au capped, 3.0 m true width). Hole N127-6890: 35.7 g/t Au over 5.3 m core length (20.9 g/t Au capped, 3.0 m true width).

Kiena Deep – South Limb Zone: Drilling continues to extend this zone down plunge and confirm the continuity of high-grade mineralization: Hole N103-6807W5: 30.3 g/t Au over 5.8 m core length (17.7 g/t Au capped, 5.0 m true width). Hole N103-6807W4: 25.2 g/t Au over 6.0 m core length (18.4 g/t Au capped, 1.6 m true width).

Wish Zone area: Initial reconnaissance drilling closer to surface has intersected high-grade gold values similar to those at Kiena Deep: Hole N033-6901: 36.4 g/t Au over 1.5 m core length.

Ms. Anthea Bath, President and CEO, commented: “We expect that 2024 will see a significant increase in exploration at Wesdome with approximately $30 million budgeted between our two sites, or 185,000 metres across surface and underground exploration as well as delineation drilling. Currently, we are seeing immediate returns from this stepped-up effort at Kiena, with results that are not only expanding and defining existing zones at Kiena Deep, but also identifying potentially significant gold mineralization in historically underexplored areas like Wish from the 33-level.”

“As the main ramp at Kiena Deep progresses towards the 136-level by year end, additional drill platforms are being established to facilitate drilling in previously discovered but not fully explored zones. Initial drilling at both the Footwall and South Limb zones is being used to better define the high-grade mineralization with a view to converting existing Inferred Resources to the Indicated category. Drilling is also expected to continue to build upon our early success and aim to expand and extend the known size of these zones.

“In the shallower Wish Zone area, the first hole we drilled from 33-level returned a high grade interval, which combined with other results in the same area, suggests the potential for additional high-grade lenses. This is highly prospective, and we expect to follow up this area with an expanded drill program in the coming months. Furthermore, as 33-level development is currently being rehabilitated further east of this zone, we expect to have more optimal drilling platforms available from the eastern side of the interpreted zone in the second half of 2024.

“We underscore that these initial high-grade results are all in proximity to our existing underground infrastructure such that they could be low-cost to develop and potentially provide additional operational flexibility as we optimize the asset. With Kiena Deep open down-plunge, and significant gold mineralization being identified closer to surface at Wish, Presqu’ile and Dubuisson, we expect Kiena’s track record of exploration success to continue,” Ms. Bath added. Technical Details

Over the past several years, underground drilling has primarily focused on testing areas proximal to the Kiena Deep A Zone. As part of this exploration focus, early success discovered the Footwall zones in 2021. Subsequently in 2022, exploration confirmed the presence of the South Limb at depth in a folded area of the Kiena Deep A Zone, suggesting potential to expand the folded high grade structure. Later in 2022, drilling intersected two new zones in the relative high rock quality hanging wall basalt that returned up to 2,850 g/t gold over 1.5 metres.

The Kiena Deep A Zone now extends continuously from 1,100 metres below surface and beyond current resources which extend to approximately 1,800 meters. More recently, drilling has been focused on the South Limb and the Footwall zones and will continue to increase as exploration platforms become more available with the deepening of the main Kiena ramp. Growth in resource inventory in these areas has the potential to increase ounces per vertical metre and thereby provide opportunities for operational flexibility and increasing production from each level. Additional drill platforms at depth will also provide an opportunity to test the previously discovered Hanging Wall Zone in the Basalt as well as follow up on areas northeast of Kiena Deep for a parallel structure.

The Wish Zone area has remained underexplored until 2024. Initial reconnaissance drilling in 2024 approximately 1 km east of the Kiena mine from the existing 33 level development has intersected narrow, high grade gold mineralization from quartz veining within a horizon of competent basalt, in contact with sheared ultramafic rocks. These results, combined with historic hole 4344 (65.5 g/t Au over 1.0 m core length), have identified gold mineralization proximal to the contact over 300 meters along strike. Follow-up drilling is expected to focus on extrapolating this contact and related gold mineralization at depth, to provide an initial assessment of the size and potential continuity of the mineralization.

Wesdome is focused on two high-grade underground assets, the Eagle River mine in Ontario and the recently commissioned Kiena mine in Quebec.