Yesterday, West Red Lake Gold Mines (WRLG.v WRLGF) announced the intersection of 9.15g/t Au over 3.3m and 10.66 g/t Au over 2.6m at the Madsen Mine's North Austin Zone.
Notably, the intersection of 8.12 g/t Au over 2m suggests the vertical continuity of almost two full mine levels, ~50m, below any workings in the east portal with similar high-grade mineralization interceptions beneath current workings effectively extend a known ore shoot ~25m down plunge.
This round of drill results were drilled underground on the North Austin Zone, representing a new area of high-grade mineralization extending the current Madsen resource to the northeast.
The program was designed to expand the North Austin zone to follow up on the initial results previously announced in November 2023.
WLRG believes these intercepts are indicative of the resource growth potential that still exists at the Madsen Mine asset with the North Austin Zone sitting adjacent to existing underground development, marking it as a high calibre target that could potentially be developed early during future mine restart and production.
The North Austin Zone remains open down-dip and along strike to the northeast and will continue to be a priority expansion target as underground drilling continues.
Shane Williams, President & CEO, stated,
“This latest round of North Austin results are very encouraging and demonstrate the untapped growth potential that still exists in this part of the Madsen deposit. As we continue to advance the East Portal decline, we will be establishing additional drilling platforms to continue extending this zone at depth.”
Since underground drilling resumed in early January 2024, WRLG has completed 1,651m of Expansion drilling and 689m of Definition drilling, with a total of 23 diamond drill holes for 2,340m having been completed so far in 2024.
Despite the asset being previously valued at one billion dollars, WRLG acquired Madsen for pennies on the dollar with all the infrastructure in place as well as tailings and permitting.
The Mine is debt-free, fully permitted, and has a brand-new mill which WRLG is on track to boost the capacity of the existing mill up to 1,5000 tonnes per day, a 50% increase.
During its historical operation, over $350M was spent on the project, however, as discussed by WRLG CEO Shane Williams at the Metals Investor Forum in January 2024, the mine was never set up for success based on shortcomings in the management team: https://youtu.be/nAfvI-D6Mto?si=9sjvx7uL2afmwbkF Given this, WRLG was able to acquire Madsen for $6M, providing a significant opportunity as it lacks the previous issues that contributed to Madsen's failure.
Posted on Behalf of West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.