West Red Lake outlines sequencing plan in Madsen mine update

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd [WRLG-TSXV] said the South Austin Zone at its Madsen gold mine in northwestern Ontario is expected to be sequenced in early during the planned restart of the operation.

The announcement comes after the company announced new definition drilling results on September 24, 2024, which focused on the high-grade South Austin Zone. “This definition drilling is part of the de-risking process ahead of the mine restart,’’ said Will Robinson, Vice-President, Exploration at West Red Lake.  “We’re targeting the highest grade, highest tonnage areas, prioritizing the drill stations based on that ranking,’’ he said.

The South Austin Zone currently contains an indicated resource of 474,600 ounces of grade 8.7 g/t told, with an additional inferred resource of 31,800 ounces at 8.7 g/t gold.

“For the South Austin holes we reported on September 24, 2024, the drill spacing is a tight six to eight metres,’’ Robinson said. “We’re bringing this deposit to a level of confidence where we can hand the data off to the engineering team for mine-design,’’ he said. “The definition drilling results will feed into the mine restart plan,’’ he said. “We’re going to be mining a number of active headings at the same time. We anticipate six or seven active headings for the cut and fill portion of the mining, which is smaller tonnage, but tends to be higher grade.’’

West Red Lake shares were unchanged at 80 cents Thursday and trade in a 52-week range of $1.04 and 46.5 cents.

Roughly one year ago, West Red Lake reached a binding deal with bankrupt Pure Gold Mining Inc. and Sprott Resource Lending Corp. to acquire the Madsen mine, an operation which produced 2.5 million ounces between 1938 and 1976. Pure Gold previously sought protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) after reporting operational challenges at Madsen. Pure Gold brought the mine back into production in December 29, 2020.

While the company news flow is dominated by drill results, much of he required work is happening behind the scenes in a pre-feasibility study detailing the restart plan. This study is targeted for release in early 2025.

West Red Lake recently outlined some of the key mine infrastructure and development projects that it plans t undertake at Madsen in the near to medium term with funds from recent financings.

The list includes a 1,200-metre haulage way to connect the East and West portals/declines that the Madsen mine, thereby increasing material haulage efficiency, ventilation and safety.

“We are building a connection drift which will be used to get the South Austin ore to the surface via the East Portal, which is directly adjacent to the crusher and mill,’’ the company said. “We anticipate this will give us a significant efficiency boost when mining.’’

The company plans to install a permanent primary crusher as part of the Madsen mill, which previously relied on a temporary leased crusher.