West Red Lake Seeks to Expand Resource with Commencement of 3,000 Meter Expansion Drill Program

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.  (TSXV:WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) announced the commencement of surface drilling at the Wedge target, located approximately 2 kilometres (“km”) southwest from its 100% owned Madsen Mine in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The drilling program will consist of up to 3,000 metres (“m”) with the goal of growing and upgrading the existing mineral resources at Wedge, which currently contain an Indicated mineral resource of 56,100 ounces (“oz”) grading 5.6 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”), with an additional Inferred resource of 78,700 oz grading 5.7 g/t Au.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Surface exploration drilling to commence at the Wedge target – located 2 km southwest from the Madsen Mine
• Drilling will be focused on extending high-grade zones at Wedge and increasing confidence in the overall mineral resource
• Wedge currently hosts an Indicated resource of 56,100 oz of gold grading 5.6 g/t Au and an Inferred resource of 78,700 oz of gold grading 5.7 g/t Au
• The Wedge resource sits adjacent to the past-producing Starratt-Olsen Mine which historically processed 823,554 tonnes grading 6.16 g/t Au for approximately 163,000 oz of gold

Previous drilling highlights from the Wedge target include:

• Hole PG17-486 Intersected 10.33 m @ 24.94 g/t Au, from 16.67 m to 27 m
• Hole PG17-467 Intersected 16.6 m @ 17.49 g/t Au, from 11.45 m to 28 m
• Hole PG17-482 Intersected 14.4 m @ 8.35 g/t Au, from 28 m to 42.4 m
• Hole PG19-643 Intersected 1 m @ 108.5 g/t Au, from 103 m to 104 m

FIGURE 1. Plan view map showing location of Wedge deposit relative to the Madsen Mine.

FIGURE 2. Oblique view of Wedge resource showing 2022 SRK Block Model and location of previous drilling highlights noted in this press release.1

DISCUSSION

The Wedge deposit comprises four resource zones (DV, CK, MJ and OL) and one mineralized zone (86) that remains at the exploration target stage. All five zones generally correspond with historical surface showings and mineralized areas (Branson, 2019a).

The DV and CK Zones lie within the same structure that hosts the Fork Main Zone, but about 900 m along strike to the southwest. The intervening area is prospective for potential resource expansion and this area includes the 86 Zone exploration target. The 86 Zone was explored in 1998 by mechanical stripping and recent mapping of these outcrops (Cooley and Leatherman, 2015) suggests that 86 Zone may represent the southern extension of the Fork deposit as the host rocks are continuous and the style of mineralization is similar. At 86 Zone, rock sampling by previous workers of outcropping iron formation characterized by banded magnetite, pyrrhotite and amphibole has returned highly anomalous gold values. Drilling directly underneath this surface mineralization in 2017 returned multiple intercepts exceeding 5 g/t Au (up to 22.9 g/t Au over 1.1 m). Gold is hosted in quartz veins spatially associated with both iron formation and altered basalt.

In detail, the DV and CK Zones comprise a series of up to three concordant resource shapes across a collective width of 70 m and a maximum strike length of 700 m. At the DV Zone, gold is hosted within discontinuous quartz ± chlorite-amphibole veins (VBGQ veins) with biotite-amphibole-diopside selvedges and minor pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite (Branson, 2019b). These veins are hosted in weakly altered mafic volcanic rocks or more commonly within moderately to strongly altered mafic volcanic rock (BSLA or SAFZ). At the CK Zone, the geology and mineralization are comparable to the DV Zone, though the host basalt rocks have been cut by quartz porphyry. A key relationship is that the veins and the enveloping alteration zones are transected by and transposed into the main S2 foliation of the host rocks – an identical relationship to the Madsen deposit.

The OL Zone exploration target lies about 450 m southwest along strike from the edge of the CK Zone resource shape in an area characterized by deformed gold-bearing quartz veins hosted in zones of deformed quartz porphyry (QZPY) and strongly altered foliated zones (SAFZ). Outcrop stripping, surface rock sampling and diamond drilling by previous workers have delineated two parallel trends of alteration and veining separated by approximately 25 m and extending for a strike length of 200 m. The zone is open both along strike and at depth.

The MJ Zone is hosted by two concordant shear zones up to 40 m in width characterized by deformed gold-bearing quartz veins hosted within altered and deformed basalt and peridotite within the Russet Lake Ultramafic. Current drilling has delineated these shear zones over 500 m of strike length and to 320 m depth with the structure remaining open along strike and down-dip.

In addition to being a part of the recognized property-wide structural architecture associated with gold mineralization responsible for mineralization at Madsen, Fork and Russet, the Wedge deposit exhibits similar high-level characteristics to the Madsen deposit (same alteration and structural timing), however gold tends to be more often hosted in discrete quartz veins rather than disseminated within intervals of pervasively silicified rock, as is more common in the Madsen deposit.

The apparent plunge of mineralization along these structures – best demonstrated at the well-tested DV Zone – appears to be associated with the intersection of the structures and major rheological and geochemical contrasts between relatively rigid and massive basalt and adjoining IRFM and ultramafic units (Branson, 2019b). This architecture is comparable to the plunge at the Austin and South Austin zones in the Madsen deposit which are defined by intersection of the mineralized zones and mafic/ultramafic contacts.

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