West Red Lake Gold Mines pours gold bar at Madsen mill, Ontario
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. [TSXV-WRLG; OTCQB-WRLGF; FSE-UJ0] reported that a gold bar was poured using the refinery in the Madsen mill on June 8, 2024. The gold was recovered during the Madsen mill cleanup and gold recovery program at its 100%-owned Madsen mine, located in the Red Lake gold district of northwestern Ontario, Canada.
“It is very exciting to be pouring gold again at the Madsen Mill,” said Shane Williams, president and CEO. “Recovering trapped gold is another validation of the opportunity that’s available for us to unlock at the Madsen Mine. With gold worth approximately US$2,300 per ounce, recovering these ounces from the mill will help bolster our treasury. And the excitement of pouring gold again at the mine is further energizing our team as we push to get Madsen back into production in the second half of 2025.”
As detailed in a news release on May 2, 2024, West Red Lake Gold undertook a mill cleanup program because of visual evidence that installation and operational missteps by the prior operator in certain parts of the mill had created “traps”, resulting in gold being caught up in these physical traps instead of making it through the mill.
A preliminary mill cleanup in late 2023 recovered 415 troy ounces of gold with proceeds of approximately US$750,000 from material trapped in the mill’s circuits. This prompted a second phase focused on the ball mills and semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills. Gold was found physically trapped in ill-fitting liners in the ball mill, in the SAG mills, and in uncleaned filters. All of these would have impacted the previous operator’s reconciliation numbers, and all can be minimized or eliminated through installation of proper equipment and mill operations expertise.
Longshot Diamond Drilling specializes in mill cleanups and conducted the cleanup at the Madsen mill. Owner Russell Manderstrom has cleaned over 30 shut-down mills around the world since 1978. Longshot brought a small portable gravity circuit to the Madsen site and used it to separate coarse gold from the milled material collected during the cleanup.
West Red Lake Gold used the gold refinery at the Madsen mill to pour the recovered coarse gold into a gold bar on site. The company was pleased to see the refinery operating smoothly after 18 months of inactivity.
“Seeing the refinery in action was another check mark on our list of Operational Readiness requirements,” said Shane Williams. “Starting or restarting a mine requires reliable operations from multiple facilities and systems. With over 100 employees at site, constant underground development and drilling, and multiple capital projects underway or in planning, we are establishing the systems that support smooth mine operations. From my experience building and commissioning mines, I know what a difference it makes to a new operation to have such systems in place prior to start up.”
The rest of the collected material, which contains the remaining gold fines, will now be sent off-site for processing. When this off-site processing is complete, West Red Lake Gold will announce the total amount of gold recovered through the mill cleanup program.
West Red Lake Gold Mines is focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the associated 47 km2 prospective land package in the Red Lake district, Ontario. The Red Lake Gold District 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.