West Red Lake Gold Drills 70.80 g/t Au over 8.3 m Including 1,120.19 g/t Au over 0.5 mat Rowan Property

Photo of Visible Gold

Rowan Project Section Locator Plan

Section 1: Looking Southwest

Vein 101 Long Section Looking North

Rowan & Madsen Projects Location Map

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or “WRLG” or the “Company”) (TSXV:WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) is pleased to announce the following update from the 2023 exploration drilling program on its 100% owned Rowan Property located in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Hole RLG-23-163B intersected 70.80 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) over 8.3 metres (“m”), including 1,120.19 g/t Au over 0.5 m.

This hole represents the highest-grade intercept ever drilled across the Rowan Property and is a testament to the continued success our exploration team is achieving with the 2023 drilling campaign. The drill program at Rowan has already been expanded from 17,000 m to 25,000 m, and these results only further validate the team’s commitment to the Rowan asset.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Hole RLG-23-163B Intersected 8.3m @ 70.80 g/t Au in Vein Zone 101 from 387 m to 395.3 m, including 0.5 m @ 13.46 g/t Au from 389 m to 389.5 m, 0.5 m @ 1,120.19 g/t Au from 393.5 m to 394 m and 0.6 m @ 29.64 g/t Au from 394.7 m to 395.3 m.
• This represents the highest-grade intercept ever drilled across the Rowan Property.
• The location of the pierce point on Vein 101 represents one of the deeper intercepts drilled within the high-grade East Zone which could be indicating that the vein system is increasing in grade and thickness with depth.
• The exploration team is immediately following up on this success to further define this extremely high-grade and thick portion of gold mineralization within the already impressive East Zone at Rowan.

Figure 1. Impressive visible gold showing within intercept grading 1,120.19 g/t Au. Diamond drill core in this photo is NQ diameter (47.6 millimeters).

Shane Williams, President & CEO, stated, “There are very few places in the world where the geologic conditions exist to produce an intercept of this calibre, and the Red Lake district has demonstrated time and again that it is most definitely one of them. Our exploration team has already been immensely successful with the drilling program at the Rowan Mine target in 2023, and the spectacular drill results highlighted in this news release only emphasize the upside that still exists at Rowan. Our team is confident that we are only just starting to scratch the surface at Rowan with many more exciting discoveries to come.”

The high-grade mineralized vein zones encountered at the Rowan Mine target area (the “Rowan Mine Target”) continue to exceed expectations, confirm the geologic model, and further improve the existing high-grade (9.2 g/t Au) 827,462 ounce Inferred Mineral Resource at the Rowan Mine. Plan map and sections for the Rowan Mine drilling outlined in this release are provided in Figures 2 through 4.

TABLE 1. Significant intercepts (>4 g/t Au) from RLG-23-163B at the Rowan Mine Target.

*The “From-To” intervals in Table 1 are denoting overall downhole length of the intercept. True thickness has not been calculated for these intercepts but is expected to be ≥ 70% of downhole thickness based on intercept angles observed in the drill core.

A total of 17,000 m of infill and expansion drilling was originally proposed for the Rowan Mine target in 2023. Based on the positive results received to date, the program has been expanded to 25,000 m and is expected to be completed by year end 2023. The additional drill meters will be used to continue de-risking the Rowan Mine resource, and test the growth potential down-plunge on the highest-grade portions of the resource. Current drilling at Rowan has only tested mineralization down to a depth of approximately 550 m. All of the high-grade zones still remain open below this vertical depth. The Red Lake Mining District is known to host orebodies that extend down to +4 kilometre (“km”) depth, which bodes well for the down-plunge growth potential at Rowan.

It is the Company’s belief that potential synergies could exist between high-grade resources at the Rowan Mine target area and Madsen. The Company has initiated a metallurgical study at Rowan to begin evaluating this potential opportunity, as well as a geotechnical study to better characterize the rock mass properties within the mineralized vein zones at Rowan.

In conjunction with infill and expansion drilling, the Company is also initiating the necessary baseline environmental and archaeological assessments to begin moving the project towards an Advanced Exploration Permit status.

FIGURE 2. Deposit-scale plan map of Rowan Mine Target area showing traces and intercepts for holes highlighted in this News Release.

TABLE 2: Drill collar summary for hole reported in this News Release.

DISCUSSION

The Rowan Mine Target consists of more than seven sub-parallel, near-vertical, east-west trending veins that are currently defined over a strike length of approximately 1.1 km– mineralization remains open along strike and at depth. The orientation of the veins at the Rowan Mine tend to follow the direction of D2 deformation, which is oriented in an east-west direction over this part of the property. Individual mineralized veins usually average 1.0 to 1.5 m in thickness, with an overall thickness of the Rowan vein corridor at around 115 m. Gold mineralization is typically localized within quartz-carbonate veins hosted within and along the ‘footwall’ margin of a porphyritic felsic intrusive, with increased grades often associated with the presence of visible gold and base metal sulphides (e.g. galena, sphalerite). High-grade dilation zones or ‘ore chutes’ along the Rowan vein trend have been recognized as important controls for localizing thicker and higher-grade zones of gold mineralization. The position and geometry of these dilation zones is well understood at Rowan.

The drilling completed at the Rowan Mine Target in 2023 has been focused on validating historical data across the Inferred Resource, and also infilling apparent gaps in the analytical data set which was a product of very selective sampling techniques implemented during previous drilling campaigns. Assay results received from the 2023 drilling program continue to confirm our thesis that quartz veining and gold mineralization continue at depth and along strike, with grades consistent with, or higher than those outlined in the current Inferred Mineral Resource which remains open in all directions. For example, the 100 Vein Zone – which is the furthest north vein currently modeled within the overall Rowan vein corridor – was previously interpreted to be a lower grade portion of the block model. Recent drilling has confirmed that higher grades are present within the 100 Vein Zone below 150 m elevation, suggesting that gold grades are increasing at depth within this zone which is a trend that has been observed elsewhere in the Red Lake district. Drilling at the Rowan Mine Target area will continue with an emphasis on infill and expansion of the existing high-grade mineral resource.

FIGURE 3. Rowan Mine drill section showing assay highlights for Hole RLG-23-163B^[1].

FIGURE 4. Rowan Mine longitudinal section for Vein 101 showing 2023 intercepts > 4 g/t Au. Assay highlights from current press release shown in red^[1].

High resolution versions of all the figures contained in this press release can be found at the following web address: https://westredlakegold.com/september-12th-news-release-maps/.

Longitudinal sections showing all intercepts > 3 g/t Au on Veins 101, 102 and 103 can be viewed here: https://westredlakegold.com/august-1st-news-release-maps/.

QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL

Drilling completed at the Rowan Property consists of oriented NQ-sized diamond drill core. All drill holes are systematically logged, photographed, and sampled by a trained geologist at WRLG’s Mt. Jamie core processing facility. Minimum allowable sample length is 0.5 m. Maximum allowable sample length is 1.5 m. Standard reference materials and blanks are inserted at a targeted 5% insertion rate. The drill core is then cut lengthwise utilizing a diamond blade core saw along a line pre-selected by the geologist. To reduce sampling bias, the same side of drill core is sampled consistently utilizing the orientation line as reference. For those samples containing visible gold (“VG”), a trained geologist supervises the cutting/bagging of those samples, and ensures the core saw blade is ‘cleaned’ with a dressing stone following the VG sample interval. Bagged samples are then sealed with zip ties and transported by WRLG personnel directly to SGS Natural Resource’s Facility in Red Lake, Ontario for assay.

Samples are then prepped by SGS, which consists of drying at 105°C and crushing to 75% passing 2 mm. A riffle splitter is then utilized to produce a 500 g course reject for archive. The remainder of the sample is then pulverized to 85% passing 75 microns from which 50 g is analyzed by fire assay and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish. Samples returning gold values > 5 g/t Au are reanalyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50 g sample. Samples with visible gold are also analyzed via metallic screen analysis (SGS code: GO_FAS50M). For multi-element analysis, samples are sent to SGS’s facility in Burnaby, British Columbia and analyzed via four-acid digest with an atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish for 33-element analysis on 0.25 g sample pulps (SGS code: GE_ICP40Q12). SGS Natural Resources analytical laboratories operates under a Quality Management System that complies with ISO/IEC 17025.

West Red Lake Gold’s Rowan Property presently hosts a National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) Inferred Mineral Resource of 2,790,700 t at an average grade of 9.2 g/t Au containing 827,462 ounces of gold with a cut-off grade of 3.8 g/t Au (NI 43-101 Technical Report authored by John Kita, P.Eng., dated December 13, 2022 and filed December 30, 2022 on www.sedar.com). The Inferred Mineral Resource is located in the area of the historic underground Rowan Mine site and situated within a 1.8 km strike length portion of the regional scale Pipestone Bay St Paul Deformation Zone.

The technical information presented in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Will Robinson, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for West Red Lake Gold and the Qualified Person for exploration at the West Red Lake Project, as defined by NI 43-101 “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”.

ABOUT WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company that is publicly traded and focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the associated 47 km² highly prospective land package in the Red Lake district of Ontario. The highly productive Red Lake Gold District of Northwest Ontario, Canada has yielded over 30 million ounces of gold from high-grade zones and hosts some of the world’s richest gold deposits. WRLG also holds the wholly owned Rowan Property in Red Lake, with an expansive property position covering 31 km² including three past producing gold mines – Rowan, Mount Jamie, and Red Summit.

ON BEHALF OF WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES LTD.

“Shane Williams”

Shane Williams        
President & Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Amandip Singh, VP Corporate Development
Tel: 416-203-9181
Email: investors@westredlakegold.com or visit the Company’s website at https://www.westredlakegold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute “forward-looking statements”. When used in this document, the words “anticipated”, “expect”, “estimated”, “forecast”, “planned”, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information. These statements are based on current expectations of management, however, they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. does not undertake any obligation to revise or update any forward- looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date hereof, except as required by securities laws.

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¹ Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 9.2 g/t Au and using a gold price of US$1,600/oz. Please refer to the technical report entitled “Technical Report and Resource Estimate on the West Red Lake Project” dated December 13, 2022 prepared for WRLG by John Kita, P.Eng., and filed December 30, 2022 on www.sedar.com.

Photo accompanying this announcement are available at: