Dr. Allen Alper | February 1, 2017 | Metalsnews.com: West Red Lake Gold Mines Inc. (CSE:RLG) (OTCQB:RLGMF) (CSE: RLG; FWB: HYK; OTCQB: RLGMF) is focused on gold exploration and development in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. We learned from John Kontak, President of West Red Lake Gold that the company has a 3100 hectare property in three parcels: two parcels are 100% owned by West Red Lake, the Mt. Jamie parcel and the Red Summit parcel, with former mines on each property; and the high grade Rowan Mine property is a 60% joint venture with Goldcorp. The company’s main focus has been on the Rowan Mine property, where they are the operator. Currently, the company is in the middle of a two or three year exploration program at Rowan Mine, with the gold of expanding the Rowan gold deposit to something around two million ounces. And there is also a second exploration target where two regional gold bearing structures intersect on the Rowan Mine property. According to Mr. Kontak, who believes in gold as an asset class, the company is closely held with major share positions held by management and a few institutional investors.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News, interviewing John Kontak, President of West Red Lake Gold. Could you update our readers on what’s happening with West Red Lake Gold Mines, John?
John Kontak: We have the West Red Lake Project property in Red Lake, Ontario, where we’re in a joint venture with Goldcorp. Goldcorp, of course, was founded in Red Lake, Ontario. We have a 3100 hectare property. It’s actually in three parcels. Two parcels we own 100%, the Mt. Jamie parcel and the Red Summit parcel, both have former mines on the property, but our two main drill targets during the course of 2016 and for 2017 are on the Rowan Mine property portion of our 3100 hectare property. That’s a joint venture with Goldcorp, where we’re 60% owner and operator and Goldcorp is 40%.
Just speaking briefly of the regional geology, our property is about 20 kilometers west of the major Goldcorp complex in Red Lake, where they have the Red Lake Mine, the Campbell Mine, and the Cochenour Mine. The Red Lake Gold District has produced about 30 million ounces of gold and about 18 million ounces have been produced by Goldcorp. Our property has about 12 kilometers of strike length on the Pipestone Bay St. Paul Deformation Zone, which is a major east-west trending geological structure in the Red Lake Gold District, a world-class gold district known for its high-grade ore.
We have two main drill targets that are both on the Pipestone Bay St. Paul Deformation Zone. One is the Rowan Mine deposit, where we released a NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report in February of 2016 which included an inferred resource estimate of 1,087,000 ounces grading 7.57 grams of gold per tonne, within 500 meters of surface, so a classic, near surface, narrow vein gold deposit.
The second drill target is where the Pipestone Bay St. Paul Deformation Zone is intersected by the Golden Arm Structure, a second regional gold bearing structure. Such geological intersections can host major gold deposits.
John Kontak: What we’re doing both in terms of the drill results in the second half of 2016 and as we plan for the work programs for 2017, we’re going to explore to greater depth below the inferred resource area at the Rowan Mine deposit. We’re going to work our way down to about 1000 meters during the course of the next number of years. We’re working a two or three year program with the goal to double the size of the gold deposit.
The grade tends to perhaps increase as you go to depth in Red Lake, and so maintaining the high grade resource in terms of grams per tonne as we grow the size of the deposit. With improving gold sentiment and deposit values beginning in early 2016 all the macro pieces appear to be in place looking out over the next few years. As we get more value per ounce in the ground in Red Lake, as the gold sentiment improves, and we grow the size of our deposit, we think we can do good things for our shareholders by drilling out the Rowan mine deposit over the next few years. Our September news release and our December news release reported on the two 2016 drill programs.
At the same time, what you’ll see in those news releases is that about a kilometer to the east of the Rowan mine deposit you have the intersection of two regional gold-bearing structures. The Pipestone Bay St. Paul Deformation Zone east-west trending geological structure is intersected by the Golden Arm Structure and adjacent NT Zone coming from the southwest and trending to the northeast. When you get the intersection of two major regional gold-bearing structures you have the potential to find a large deposit. Goldcorp, our 40% funding partner, understands this because just 20 kilometers to the east is where two gold bearing structures intersect, that took Goldcorp from a company that was tens of millions of dollars in market cap and changed them into a multi-billion dollar company.
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