West Madsen Property

We have been closely monitoring West Red Lake Gold since their acquisition of the Madsen mine property in June 2023. With the headframe of the Madsen mine just a 5 km drive from our eastern claim boundary, we are in an enviable strategic location with promising targets warranting further exploration," 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 approximately 11,100 metres of diamond drilling over 28 holes. This work focused on Block A, which adjoins the Madsen gold mine property (Figure 1) acquired by West Red Lake Gold Mines (see WRLG news release of June 19, 2023) and where they expect to restart production in H2 2025.

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.

GoldON's Phase 1 wide-spaced reconnaissance drilling program in 2020 (2,237.25 m over seven holes) 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 (see news release of July 22, 2020). The Balmer Assemblage rock package hosts most of the current gold resources and historical gold production in the Red Lake Greenstone Belt, and GoldON's Phase 2 drilling program in 2020/2021 (7,041 m over 16 holes) was successful in identifying rocks of the Balmer Assemblage in 10 of the 16 holes (see news releases of February 9, 2021 and June 1, 2021).

 Figure 3: Location of Phases 1 and 2 drill holes collars and traces.

Gold mineralization was also discovered in felsic intrusive rocks within the Confederation Assemblage through GoldON’s fieldwork and drilling. The interesting drill hole was WM-21-22, which intersected a granodiorite intrusive body that returned 0.16 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) over 195 metres (m), including 0.51 g/t Au over 10.90 m. The consistent anomalous gold in this hole suggested the potential of a proximal gold system, and as such, warranted further investigation via the target development that focused within and around this area (Figure 4).

The objective of GoldON's Phase 3 drilling program in 2024 was to test the granodiorite intrusive body along strike from WM-21-22 to the east towards the New Mallen gold occurrence and investigate a geophysical interpreted fold nose that would provide an important conduit and trap for gold mineralization noted on surface and in the 2021 drill program.

Figure 4: Close-ups of the priority Phase 3 drill target area showing multiple fractures (left) and possible folding (right).

The objective of GoldON's Phase 3 drilling program in 2024 was to test the granodiorite intrusive body along strike from WM-21-22 to the east towards the New Mallen gold occurrence and investigate a geophysical interpreted fold nose that would provide an important conduit and trap for gold mineralization noted on surface and in the 2021 drill program.

A total of 1,828.42 metres of diamond drilling was completed over five holes in Phase 3 (Figure 5). The final assay results (see news release of November 7, 2024) demonstrated an anomalous gold zone which now encompasses a total strike length of over 1.4 kilometres. Interestingly, results from WM-24-05 returned gold not just from the granodiorite (0.28 g/t over 15 metres) but also in highly silicified metasediments that are in contact with the hanging wall of the granodiorite (0.85 g/t Au over 9.44 m including 2.04 g/t Au over 2 m). 

Since gold was not visibly identified in the core, the modality of this gold, whether it is occurring in the wall rock or veins is unclear. Further inspection of the core with the assay results, detailed sampling and analysis of vein paragenesis should all aid in determining the source of this extensive anomalous gold footprint.

Figure 5: 2024 West Madsen drill hole collar locations and traces.

As this drilling program focused on rocks of the Confederation Assemblage, holes WM-24-03 and WM-24-04, the two most easterly holes, also drilled south, intersected ultra mafic flows believed to belong to the Balmer Assemblage. The Balmer Assemblage ultra mafic rocks are host to the current and past gold-producing mines of the Red Lake Gold Camp. The ultra mafic volcanic flows in holes WM-24-03 and WM-24-04 were fine grained, black with a strong biotitic groundmass. Interestingly, this unit contained foliation-controlled fine wisps and seams of predominantly chalcopyrite with subordinate pyrite over multiple sections 10-20 centimetres wide. Hole WM-24-04 returned 0.20% Cu over 13.41 m starting at 216.95 m downhole, which included 1.93% Cu over 0.37 m.

Drill hole WM-24-02 was planned to investigate the potential for folded stratigraphy as interpreted from the surface geophysics (Figure 4). Repeated lithologies were not intersected and as such the source of this geological signature is still unknown.

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.