Gold Producer Reports High-Grade Gold at Historic Ontario Mine

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1. Ownership and Share Structure Information

The information listed above was updated on the date this article was published and was compiled from information from the company and various other data providers.

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (WRLG:TSX.V; WRLGF:OTCQX; UJ0:FSE) reported assay results from the first five holes of a 12-hole surface drilling program at the historic Starratt-Olsen Mine in Northwestern Ontario's Red Lake Mining District, according to a September 10 release.

The past-producing Starratt operation sits approximately 1.1 kilometers southwest of the company's wholly owned Madsen Mine.

The initial drilling returned high-grade gold mineralization near areas historically mined at Starratt. Hole WRL26-054 intersected 1.5 meters grading 16.16 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) from 121.15 meters, including 0.85 meters at 24.60 g/t Au. Hole WRL26-055 returned 4.5 meters at 5.16 g/t Au from 114 meters, including 1.5 meters grading 10.94 g/t Au.

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

The company sees Starratt as a potential component of its broader plan to develop multiple gold deposits around the Madsen Mine and mill under its Hub and Spoke strategy. West Red Lake said limited modern exploration has also been completed on several other nearby targets, supporting its efforts to build a pipeline of operating and near-term deposits that could feed the Madsen mill.

"As we progress, we are developing a robust pipeline of both operations and near-term deposits all feeding the mill at Madsen," Robinson said. "With Madsen in production, Fork advancing toward inclusion in the 2027 production profile with ramp development, and Rowan in the permitting stage and being evaluated alongside Madsen in a proposed combined Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), Starratt represents another opportunity to assess the potential of this broader mineralized system to the southwest along the Madsen structural trend."

The initial Starratt program focused on testing the upper portion of the system from surface, but the company believes the main ore shoot could extend substantially deeper. Underground drilling and chip sampling near the shaft bottom have identified multiple gold occurrences above 10 g/t Au, while a 2016 drill hole returned 2 meters at 27.3 g/t Au and 3 meters at 104.1 g/t Au, accompanied by numerous instances of visible gold.

"The exploration team is already looking into ways we could potentially access this area from the Madsen 16 Level exploration drive, which was advanced towards Starratt at 800 meters depth during the late 1930s and gets within 200 meters of the main down plunge extension," Robinson continued.

According to the release, other results from the first five holes included WRL26-054, the standout hole, which returned a shallower intercept of 2.2 meters grading 2.64 g/t Au from 115.8 meters. WRL26-052 cut 1 meter at 0.78 g/t Au from 122.55 meters, along with a deeper 2.05 meters at 1.05 g/t Au, and WRL26-051 returned 0.8 meters at 0.71 g/t Au. WRL26-053 returned no significant assays above 0.5 g/t Au.

High-Grade Upside Potential Runs Deep at Starratt

West Red Lake Gold sees strong potential below the shallow zones its 2026 Starratt surface drilling tested, the release said. The main ore shoot trends moderately northeast, similar to  Madsen's Austin and South Austin zones, and historical underground drilling and channel samples show the previously mined structure is open past 440 meters depth. Those historical results help define a possible mineralized panel of roughly 300 by 400 meters with potential for grades above 10 g/t Au.

A 2016 drill hole backs that up, cutting 2 meters at 27.3 g/t Au from 561 to 563 meters and 3 meters at 104.1 g/t Au from 567 to 570 meters within the projected down-plunge extension. The company said the intercept shows classic Madsen-style mineralization: strong silicification, biotite alteration, pyrrhotite and pyrite, diopside veining, and repeated visible gold.

The company also has access to a possible exploration drift underground from Madsen toward the deeper areas of the Starratt deposit. The exploration drive pushed from Madsen toward Starratt off the 16 Level, about 800 meters down, in the late 1930s, reached within roughly 200 meters of the projected ore-shoot extension.

With Madsen now dewatered to the 18 Level, the company is preparing to rehabilitate the 16 Level drift for mapping and sampling, with diamond drilling possibly to follow. Drilling from underground would test the deep Starratt extension with much shorter holes and better angles than surface work allows.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Matthew O'Keefe kept his Buy rating and CA$2.20 target on West Red Lake Gold in an August 28 update covering the company's second-quarter financials.

"We maintain our Buy rating and CA$2.20/share target price based on equally blended 0.6x NAV/6.0x 2027E CFPS (unchanged)," he wrote. Cantor said Madsen produced 8,576 ounces in the quarter, up 51% sequentially, as cash costs fell 23% to US$2,000 per ounce and AISC dropped 30% to US$3,284 per ounce. The company stayed on track for its 2026 targets of 35,000 to 45,000 ounces and AISC of US$2,800 to US$3,600 per ounce.

O'Keefe flagged several milestones ahead: raising throughput toward 1,000 tonnes per day, extending the access ramp to the high-grade Fork deposit, and more assays from Starratt-Olsen and the 904 Complex. A combined Madsen-Rowan pre-feasibility study remained on track for the second half of September, Cantor said.

Madsen Delivers a Stronger Q2

West Red Lake Gold's latest Madsen results addressed the cost and output worries that hit the stock earlier in 2026, Jeff Clark, Daniel Flynn, and Sharyn Alexander wrote in an August 27 review for The Paydirt Prospector.

Gold production rose 51% quarter over quarter to 8,576 ounces, and sales gained 34% to 8,260 ounces, lifting revenue 17% to CA$49.0 million, adjusted EBITDA 54% to CA$22.1 million, and free cash flow to a positive CA$9.7 million. Cash costs fell 23% to US$2,000 per ounce, and AISC dropped 30% to US$3,284 per ounce, bringing the second quarter back within 2026 guidance after a first-quarter AISC of US$4,678 per ounce had left margins too thin even at a strong gold price. The writers credited the turn to Madsen mining and processing more ore, selling more gold, and spreading fixed costs over more ounces.

"It's good to see the benefits of the ramp-up begin to shine through," the writers said, adding that they want Madsen to reach an annualized 60,000-ounce rate, expected in the second half, before it anchors a larger Red Lake platform aimed at 120,000 ounces a year as satellite deposits Rowan, Fork and Austin join the mine plan.

The stock rose 4.2% on the news and is up 37% over the past month, though still about 34% below its pre-guidance level. The Paydirt Prospector moved WRLG to a Hold, worth watching through the next quarterly results and progress on the Madsen pre-feasibility study and satellite deposits.

Investor and newsletter writer Chen Lin took a cautious view of Madsen on May 13, after the company revised its 2026 guidance. The shares had "suffered dearly after the guidance for 2026," he wrote, and he had spoken with "quite a few people very familiar with WRLG operation."

Lin called Madsen a tough mining environment because "many good areas were mined out," saying the company would need "to build a decline to mine at a fresh new area, which will likely take a year or so." He added: "That's the wait for this mine to 'turn around.' Investors need to be patient."

The Catalyst: 'This Isn't the End of the Bull Market,' Goldman Says

Gold and silver advanced in late-afternoon U.S. trading on Wednesday as a softer dollar and safe-haven buying tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict outweighed rising Treasury yields and another jump in crude, according to a September 9 report by Kitco NewsWire. Spot gold changed hands near US$4,396.40 an ounce, up 0.96%, while spot silver traded at US$67.080, up 2.20% on the session.

Traders remain fixed on whether this week's inflation data confirms or unwinds the market's roughly 60% odds of a Fed rate hike at the Sept. 15-16 meeting, the report said. August PPI is due Thursday and CPI Friday, and both carry added weight now that Brent's return above US$100 has pushed the 10-year Treasury yield near its highest level since October 2023. Gold has drawn support from dollar weakness, geopolitical demand, and Treasury buyback volatility, but the rate backdrop caps it: a firm PPI or CPI print would reinforce the hike trade and keep pressure on non-yielding metals, while a softer sequence would open cleaner ground for the Waller-led pause argument.

Gold rose despite higher yields once the dollar eased and investors waited on the data, while silver outperformed on the same dollar weakness and a firmer technical tone after buyers reclaimed the US$67 area, the report said. For now, the market is treating the currency channel and fiscal-risk hedging as the stronger inputs rather than rates, leaving Thursday's PPI and Friday's CPI as the decisive tests of whether the bounce broadens into a recovery or fades at another lower high.

Gold's extended period of weaker performance since February does not signal that its broader advance has ended, according to Anthony Kim, Goldman Sachs' Global Head of Metals Trading, Kitco's Ernest Hoffman wrote in another report on the site on September 8.

Speaking on Goldman's The Markets podcast, Kim said the metal's record of US$5,589.38 per ounce reached in late January should not be viewed as the cycle peak. "From our perspective, this isn't the end of the bull market," he said. "It's an elongated pause."

Kim attributed the prolonged consolidation to two major developments. He said markets are still assessing the implications of Warsh's nomination and confirmation as Federal Reserve chair, particularly how his policy approach could interact with the Trump administration and its views on monetary policy. The second factor is the conflict involving Iran, which has disrupted energy markets and affected the recycling of global reserves into precious metals.

Kim said gold positioning has declined significantly across Goldman's client base as these developments have unsettled markets, although central-bank buying remains an important source of demand. "The one flow that does remain […] is the central bank accumulation," he said, according to Hoffman's report, adding that Goldman expects the broader uptrend to eventually resume and for gold to establish new records.

On the impact of elevated bond yields, Kim said gold's relationship with interest rates could evolve if concerns over government fiscal sustainability become a stronger driver of investment decisions. He noted that the relative appeal of fiat currencies compared with gold has been weakening for several years and argued that fiscal concerns in both Western economies and Japan could eventually encourage investors to allocate more capital toward gold even as longer-term bond yields rise.

Kim said short-term relationships between interest rates and gold remain intact, but suggested that the longer-term connection may weaken as fiscal considerations become more influential. "Locally, we do think these rates and gold correlations will hold, but the longer-term trajectory is certainly being called into question," he said.

Ownership and Share Structure¹

Institutional investors hold approximately 30% of West Red Lake Gold's shares, with insiders and advisors holding another 10%. The remaining 60% is held by retail investors.

The company's current market cap is CA$320.58 million, with a 52-week trading range of CA$0.59 to CA$1.49.

Common Investor Questions

What did West Red Lake Gold announce at Starratt? The company reported assays from the first five of twelve surface holes at the past-producing Starratt-Olsen Mine, headlined by 1.5 meters grading 16.16 g/t gold (including 0.85 meters at 24.60 g/t) in hole WRL26-054 and 4.5 meters at 5.16 g/t (including 1.5 meters at 10.94 g/t) in WRL26-055.

How does Starratt fit the company's strategy? Starratt sits about 1.1 kilometers southwest of the wholly owned Madsen Mine and is one of several deposits West Red Lake wants to feed into the Madsen mill under its "Hub and Spoke" plan, alongside Rowan, Fork, and Austin.

Why do these results matter? They represent the first focused modern drill program targeting Starratt's main historic mining areas since the 1950s, and they show high-grade, Madsen-style mineralization close to previously mined ground. The company also sees larger potential at depth, where a 2016 hole cut 2 meters at 27.3 g/t and 3 meters at 104.1 g/t gold.

How did the Madsen mine perform in the second quarter? Gold production rose 51% quarter over quarter to 8,576 ounces, and sales gained 34% to 8,260 ounces, lifting revenue 17% to CA$49.0 million, adjusted EBITDA 54% to CA$22.1 million, and free cash flow to a positive CA$9.7 million. Cash costs fell 23% to US$2,000 per ounce, and AISC dropped 30% to US$3,284 per ounce.

What do analysts and newsletters say? Cantor Fitzgerald's Matthew O'Keefe kept a Buy rating and CA$2.20 target after the second quarter. The Paydirt Prospector moved the stock to a Hold, calling the quarter an early payoff from the ramp-up while waiting for more consistent results. Chen Lin remained cautious, describing Madsen as a difficult mine that needs time to turn around.

What is the long-term production goal? Management is targeting an annualized 35,000-45,000-ounce rate at Madsen for 2026 weighted to the second half of 2026, and roughly 100,000 ounces over the longer term as satellite deposits are added to the mine plan. A combined Madsen-Rowan pre-feasibility study is expected in the second half of September.