West Madsen Property
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Our drill target development, spearheaded by Andrea Diakow, P.Geo., former exploration manager at Great Bear Resources, has embraced the theory that previous exploration efforts at West Madsen have provided valuable insights into the potential of a more robust gold mineralization system and we are excited to commence drill testing these new targets," Michael Romanik, President of GoldON.
Located in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp, GoldON's 5,988-hectare West Madsen property (the "Property") covers two distinct claim blocks, Block A to the east and Block B to the west, that are non-contiguous by less than 100 metres. Both blocks can be accessed from secondary roads that connect to Ontario HWY 618 and the town of Red Lake located approximately 15 kilometres (km) to the northeast (Location map).
Figure 1: Looking northeast from West Madsen Block A to WRLG's Madsen Mine Property (click on image to enlarge).
Since acquiring the original claim blocks from Great Bear Resources (Great Bear) in 2019 and additional claims from Bounty Gold in 2020 to increase the size of Block A, GoldON's exploration work has included geophysical interpretations, regional mapping and prospecting, rock sampling, a soil-gas-hydrocarbon SGH survey, and 9,279 metres of diamond drilling. This work focused on Block A, which adjoins the Madsen Mine property (Figure 1) that was acquired last year by West Red Lake Gold Mines (WRLG, see WRLG's news release of June 19, 2023). The bulk of the mineral resources on the Madsen mine property are hosted in a ~7-km-long gold trend that follows the major crustal break or contact between the Balmer and Confederation assemblages.
GoldON has observed the same Balmer-Confederation contact in outcrop approximately 1.5 km west of the Block A eastern claim boundary and identified it within an ~8-km corridor of disrupted regional magnetics that traverses Block A from the Madsen mine property (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Plan View of West Madsen - Block A with Madsen Mine property at right.
Gold mineralization on Block A has been confirmed in several different geological environments and represents typical Archean terrane orogenic gold deposit settings.
Diamond drilling by GoldON in 2020 discovered gold mineralization, including visible gold in hole WM-20-05 that intersected 14.4 grams per tonne (g/t) over 0.5 metres, in strongly altered mafic volcanic rocks of the Balmer assemblage. The Balmer Assemblage rock package hosts most of the current gold resources and historical gold production in the Red Lake Greenstone Belt. GoldON's latest drilling program was successful in identifying rocks of the Balmer Assemblage in 10 of the 16 holes, and this well-defined package of Balmer rocks presents numerous targets for future diamond drilling.
Figure 3: Geophysical interpretation with known gold showings and Priority 1 target.
GoldON hired Paterson, Grant & Watson (PGW) to complete a geophysical interpretation of a heliborne high-resolution magnetics (MAG) survey Great Bear had flown on the Property in 2017 (MAG survey location). The objective of the interpretation was to better define the structural and lithological controls (Figure 3) of gold mineralization, which included the identification of major regional structures and extensions of intrusives underneath the surface cover. The results of PGW's review outlined several targets for follow-up geological mapping and subsequent drilling if warranted.
Figure 4: Close-ups of priority target area showing multiple fractures (left) and possible folding (right).
The current drill program will focus on an area where GoldON’s previous prospecting and diamond drilling discovered gold mineralization in felsic intrusive rocks (quartz-feldspar porphyry) within the Confederation Assemblage.
The eye-opener was hole WM-21-22 (Drill hole location map) which intersected a 195-metre zone of relatively consistent low-grade gold mineralization (i.e. values greater than 0.1 g/t Au), that included elevated gold values of up to 2.2 g/t Au over 2.2 metres which was within a broader interval of 0.51 g/t Au over 10.9 metres. The consistent anomalous gold in this hole suggests the potential of a proximal gold system, and as such, warrants further investigation via the target development that has been focused within and around this area (Figure 4).
The exploration potential for gold mineralization within the felsic rocks of the Confederation Assemblage was elevated by Great Bear's gold discovery at their Dixie property. Instead of intermittent high-grade, vein-hosted gold mineralization typical of the Red Lake Camp, Great Bear found continuous sheet-like mineralization with high-grade gold occurring within a lower-grade mineralized halo. Kinross Gold Corp. acquired Great Bear in February 2022 for $1.8 billion.
We have been following West Red Lake Gold closely since they acquired the Madsen mine property in June 2023," said Mike Romanik, president of GoldON. "The recent news of them moving ahead with derisking of the mineral resource, optimizing a plan to restart mining in the second half of 2025, and continuing regional exploration resulted in our team taking a fresh look at our 100%-owned West Madsen property. Given the headframe of the Madsen mine is a 5 km drive from our eastern claim boundary, we are in an enviable strategic location with promising targets warranting further exploration."