In a press release dated January 17, 2024, West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV:WRLG) (OTC:WRLGF) reported final drill results from the 2023 drilling campaign at its 100% owned Rowan Property located in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
“The West Zone at Rowan is an area that was historically mined,” Will Robinson VP of Exploration told Guy Bennett, CEO of Global Stocks News (GSN). “We drilled 80 meters beneath the lowest level of historic workings and hit 4.0 meters @ 9.5 g/t gold, demonstrating that mineralization continues at depth.”
“In the East Zone, there appears to be asymmetric folding that doubles up and thickens the mineralized zones, delivering spectacular intercepts. The West Zone is probably along the limb of a deposit-scale fold,” added Robinson. “This type of gold system requires extensive drilling to accurately define and grow it. The West Zone currently has a low drill density. We are going to explore it further in 2024”.
The company’s flagship asset – The Madsen Gold Mine – is debt free, fully permitted, with a brand-new 800+ tonne per day mill, a tailings and water treatment facility. [1]
The Rowan Gold Project is 15 kilometers as the crow flies from the Madsen mill. WRLG is exploring synergies between the high-grade resources at Rowan and the Madsen mill.
Current drilling at Rowan has tested the gold-grade down to a depth of approximately 550 meters. The Red Lake Mining District is known to host ore bodies that extend down to +4 kilometers (km) depth.
The Rowan drill holes highlighted in the January 17, 2024 news release were focused on infilling gaps in the geologic model between the East and West Zones, as well as infill and expansion at depth on the West Zone ore shoot.
Most of the historic production at the Rowan Mine was from the West ore shoot area – mainly concentrated on Veins 103 & 104. Notably, hole RLG-23-177 was successful in intercepting 4.0m @ 9.5 g/t Au approximately 80m beneath the historic workings, demonstrating the down-plunge potential that still exists in the West Zone.
HIGHLIGHTS:
-
Intersected 4.0m @ 9.5 g/t Au, from 212m to 216m, Including 0.75m @ 25.20 g/t Au, from 212m to 212.75m, Also including 1.1m @ 13.0 g/t Au, from 213.25m to 214.35m.
-
Intersected 2.7m @ 3.66 g/t Au, from 211m to 213.7m, Including 0.7m @ 13.41 g/t Au, from 213m to 213.7m; And 3.6m @ 3.13 g/t Au, from 221m to 224.6m, Including 0.5m @ 20.01 g/t Au, from 223.6m to 224.1m; And 9.0m @ 3.25 g/t Au, from 255m to 264m, Including 0.5m @ 51.67 g/t Au, from 259.9m to 260.4m.
-
Intersected 1.0m @ 12.21 g/t Au, from 185m to 186m; And 2.0m @ 10.84 g/t Au, from 406m to 408m, Including 0.5m @ 42.60 g/t Au, from 406m to 406.5m.
-
Intersected 1.0m @ 16.19 g/t Au, from 420m to 421m, Including 0.5m @ 31.65 g/t Au, from 420.5m to 421m.
-
Intersected 3.5m @ 3.22 g/t Au, from 92.5m to 96.0m, Including 0.55m @ 15.90 g/t Au, from 93.95m to 94.50m; And 2.0m @ 6.09 g/t Au, from 203m to 205m, Including 0.6m @ 19.99 g/t Au, from 203.7m to 204.3m.
-
Intersected 0.5m @ 17.78 g/t Au, from 218.5m to 219m.
-
Intersected 1.5m @ 3.93 g/t Au, from 281m to 282.5m, Including 0.5m @ 10.68 g/t Au, from 282m to 282.5m.
“The work completed at Rowan during 2023 was catalyst rich, and not only demonstrated the high-grade growth potential of the deposit, but also our commitment to sustainable exploration and development in Red Lake,” stated Shane Williams, WRLG President & CEO.
“Working towards a restart scenario at the Madsen Mine will remain the primary focus for our team in 2024, but we are also very excited about the exploration potential we see in the district and look forward to updating our shareholders on continued exploration successes and Company milestones throughout the year,” added Williams.
In 2023, WRLG drilled a total of 62 holes for 20,211.4 meters of NQ diamond drill core at the Rowan Mine deposit, including these highlights:
-
70.80 g/t Au over 8.3m in hole RLG-23-163B (see press release dated September 12th)
-
50.52 g/t Au over 4.0m in hole RLG-23-149B (see press release dated August 1st)
-
66.66 g/t Au over 2.0m in hole RLG-23-153 (see press release dated August 29th)
-
45.20 g/t Au over 2.0m in hole RLG-23-166B (see press release dated October 11th)
-
10.34 g/t Au over 8.0m in hole RLG-23-134 (see press release dated May 23rd)
Resource investors tend to focus on drill results, but metallurgy is an equally critical component of a precious metal project.
“Process metallurgy is concerned with the extraction of metals from their ores and the refining of metals,” states Science Direct.
On November 15, 2023 WRLG reported that The Rowan Mine Deposit “exhibits an excellent response using conventional metallurgical techniques” with a very high percentage of Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG).
The metallurgical test work was completed using the Madsen Mill Flowsheet with the same specifications and parameters currently in place at the Madsen Mill.
- Test work completed on the Rowan Master Composites (MCs) indicates that Rowan vein material can be processed through the Madsen Mill with minor changes to the existing flowsheet.
- The results indicate the MCs tested produce very high gravity recovery with overall gold extraction above 98% after a 48-hour cyanide leach of the gravity tailings.
- Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG) ranged from 75.8% to 94.9% and the gold was found to be coarse to very coarse.
- At a primary grind of 80% passing (P80) 75 microns, very low cyanide consumptions, below 0.23 kilogram per tonne (“kg/t”), were required to achieve gold extractions above 98%.
“It is worth noting that 75-95% of that recovery is coming from the gravity circuit on the front end of the mill,” Robinson told GSN. “It’s what we call ‘easy ounces’. It radically improves the economics of the operation.”
“Overall gold extraction at Madsen is above 98%,” confirmed Robinson. “We’ve demonstrated that the Rowan material can be processed at the Madsen mill, using the same flow sheets.”
“The high percentage of gold that is able to be extracted via gravity methods further increases our confidence in the Rowan Deposit as a future source of high-grade, easily recoverable gold ounces that could potentially add a significant boost to the overall production profile at Madsen,” added CEO Shane Williams.
The price of gold hit a high of USD $2,096 on December 27, 2023. It’s since pulled back $80 to $2,016. Governments are positioning themselves for weakening of global fiat currency.
In October, 2023 (the last month of official records) central banks added 42 tonnes of gold to their official reserves. The Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price rose 17% in 2023. The People’s Bank of China increased their gold reserves in 2023 by 225 tonnes to 2,235 tonnes.
Source: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/market-primer/gold-market-primer-market-size-and-structure
On November 7, 2023 West Red Lake Gold announced an upsize of marketed private placement of units to CND $13 million at .52 per unit. Last year, WRLG raised CDN $46.7 million to fund operations in challenging gold equity markets.
WRLG CEO Shane Williams has designed, built and operated mines (open pit and underground) for Eldorado Gold and Rio Tinto. He has a stellar track record of moving mineral assets into production.
References:
1. SRK Consulting. (2021). Independent NI 43-101 Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the PureGold Mine, Canada (West Red Lake Gold Mines, Ed.) [Review of Independent NI 43-101 Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the PureGold Mine, Canada. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/08/10/2495601/0/en/PureGold-Announces-Updated-Mineral-Resource-Estimate-for-PureGold-Mine.html
guy.bennett@globalstocksnews.com