West Red Lake Gold's Starratt-Olsen Drill Results Extend the Case for a Third Mill Feed Source at Madsen

• West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. reported assays from the first 5 holes of a 12-hole, 4,100-meter surface drilling program at the historic Starratt-Olsen Mine, located 1.1 kilometers southwest of its Madsen Mine in Ontario's Red Lake Mining District.
• The best intercepts returned 1.5 meters at 16.16 grams per tonne of gold, including 0.85 meters at 24.60 grams per tonne of gold, and 4.5 meters at 5.16 grams per tonne of gold, including 1.5 meters at 10.94 grams per tonne of gold.
• Starratt-Olsen was Madsen's second-largest historic gold producer, yielding approximately 164,000 ounces of gold between 1948 and 1956 at an average grade of 6.17 grams per tonne of gold, and this is the first focused drill test of the main mined-out area since mining ceased in the 1950s.
• Historic underground drilling and a 2016 intercept of 3 meters at 104.1 grams per tonne of gold define an interpreted, unmined panel of high-grade mineralization measuring approximately 300 meters by 400 meters at a depth of 440 meters, which the company says could be accessed from Madsen's existing 16 Level exploration drift, approximately 200 meters away.
• The results support West Red Lake Gold's "Hub and Spoke" strategy, in which the Madsen mill processes ore from a pipeline of nearby deposits, including Fork and the Rowan Property, alongside Starratt-Olsen.

First Modern Drilling in Seven Decades Targets a Second Historic Mine

A gold mine that last produced in 1956 is being drilled with modern methods for the first time in seven decades, and it sits close enough to existing underground workings that a confirmed discovery would need no new mine to become mill feed. West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: WRLG | OTCQX: WRLGF) has reported assay results from the first 5 holes of a 12-hole surface drilling program at the Starratt-Olsen Mine, a past-producing deposit sitting 1.1 kilometers southwest of the company's 100%-owned Madsen Mine in Ontario's Red Lake Mining District. If the down-plunge extension outlined below is confirmed, it converts a dormant asset into incremental mill feed without requiring a new standalone mine.

Assay Results at Starratt-Olsen

The strongest intercept returned 1.5 meters at 16.16 grams per tonne gold from 121.15 to 122.65 meters, including a higher-grade interval of 0.85 meters at 24.60 grams per tonne gold. A second hole returned 4.5 meters at 5.16 grams per tonne gold from 114.0 to 118.5 meters, including 1.5 meters at 10.94 grams per tonne gold. The remaining three holes reported in this batch returned narrower, lower-grade intercepts, with one returning up to 2.05 meters at 1.05 grams per tonne of gold and another returning no assays above 0.5 grams per tonne of gold. These are downhole widths rather than true widths: the company estimates the true thickness to be 70% or more of the downhole length, based on intercept angles observed in the drill core, meaning the mineralized zone is narrower across true width than the raw intervals suggest.

Vice President of Exploration at West Red Lake Gold, Will Robinson, said the results confirm that Madsen-style mineralization extends beyond the previously mined footprint: 

"The results received from this first pass of modern drilling at the past-producing Starratt-Olsen Mine are highly encouraging. We have successfully demonstrated that Madsen-style mineralization of notable grades and thickness remains proximal to the historically mined areas."

Project & Regional Context

Starratt-Olsen was the second-largest historic gold producer on the Madsen property, yielding approximately 164,000 ounces of gold between 1948 and 1956 at an average grade of 6.17 grams per tonne gold, based on Ontario Geological Survey records. Despite that production history, the current 4,100-meter, 12-hole program is the first focused modern drill test of the main historic mining areas since operations ceased in the 1950s, targeting both up-plunge and down-plunge extensions to previously mined panels.

The program sits inside West Red Lake Gold's "Hub and Spoke" model, under which the Madsen mill processes ore from multiple satellite deposits rather than a single mine. Madsen is already in production, Fork is the nearest-term addition and is advancing toward inclusion in the 2027 production profile, and Rowan sits furthest out, still in the permitting stage and being evaluated alongside Madsen in a proposed combined pre-feasibility study (PFS). Starratt-Olsen enters that sequence as an earlier-stage, further potential contributor.

Down-Plunge Extension & Underground Access

The larger near-term catalyst sits below the zone tested in this surface program. Historic underground drilling and chip sampling, together with a 2016-era drillhole that returned 2 meters at 27.3 grams per tonne gold and 3 meters at 104.1 grams per tonne gold, define an interpreted panel of greater-than-10-grams-per-tonne gold mineralization measuring approximately 300 meters by 400 meters, open below 440 meters depth. This remains an interpretation rather than a defined resource: aside from the 2016-era hole, the company states that the historical assay data supporting it has not been independently verified for quality assurance and quality control, and no tonnage estimate has been disclosed for the panel.

What separates this target from a typical greenfield down-plunge extension is its proximity to existing underground infrastructure. An exploration drive was advanced from Madsen's 16 Level at a depth of 800 meters toward Starratt in the late 1930s, coming within approximately 200 meters of the down-plunge extension. With Madsen currently dewatered to 18 Level, the company is preparing plans to rehabilitate this drift for mapping, sampling, and potential underground drilling, an approach that would require materially shorter holes and higher-confidence drilling angles than continuing to test the target from surface.

Investment Implication for West Red Lake Gold

For a company managing a multi-asset production pipeline across Madsen, Fork, and Rowan, Starratt-Olsen's value lies in optionality rather than in the grades reported from this first batch of holes alone. A past-producing, high-grade system that sits within roughly 200 meters of existing underground development at Madsen can, if confirmed at depth, be converted into mill feed without the capital intensity of a standalone development or new permitting cycle. Assays from the remaining 7 holes in the 12-hole program are still pending and will be the next concrete data point for tracking this thesis.

Samples were assayed at AGAT Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario, using fire assay with an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) finish, under a quality management system accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standards.

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