Red Lake Camp keeps giving as Frank Giustra-backed explorer hits bonanza gold

Industry financier Frank Giustra’s first foray into gold exploration struck it big Tuesday, reporting bonanza gold grades of more than a kilogram per tonne at its Rowan property in the fabled Red Lake Camp of Ontario.

West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV: WRLG; US-OTC: WRLGF) reported Tuesday that hole RLG-23-163B cut 70.8 grams gold per tonne over 8.3 meters, including a segment of 0.5-meter grading 1,120.19 grams gold per tonne.

The news sent the company’s Toronto-quoted stock up 6.1% to close the day at 52¢.

Giustra proudly displayed a polished drill core on stage at the Precious Metals Forum underway in Colorado, clearly showing visible gold.

“I’m actually putting money into exploration for the first time,” Giustra told a keynote panel. “If we hit, it’s a huge win and that’s exciting. I’ve seen the light now. I’m coming into exploration slowly,” said the 11.5% owner of West Red Lake to rousing applause from the audience.

Giustra catapulted to mining fame by running a prominent mining finance house before getting intimately involved with gold producers Wheaton River Minerals and later, Goldcorp and other large mining ventures, amongst myriad other business and philanthropic ventures.

According to the company’s press release, the pierce point on Vein 101, where the intersection occurred, represents one of the deeper intercepts drilled within the high-grade East Zone. This suggests the possibility of the vein system increasing in grade and thickness as the depth increases.

The exploration team plans to conduct further investigations to define this high-grade section of gold mineralization in the East Zone at Rowan. To this end, it has expanded its drill program to 25,000 metres from an initially planned 17,000 metres, reflecting the team’s increased confidence and discovery momentum.

In conjunction with infill and expansion drilling, the company is also initiating the necessary baseline environmental and archaeological assessments to move the project toward an advanced exploration permit status.

West Red Lake, in mid-June, acquired the defunct Pure Gold Mining for its Madsen gold project. The acquisition includes a fully permitted underground gold mine with an indicated resource of 6.9 million tonnes grading 7.4 grams gold for 1.65 million oz. of metal, as well as a high-quality mill facility.

Combined with the high-grade Rowan inferred resource of 2.8 million tonnes grading 9.2 grams gold for 800,000 oz. located west of Madsen, the company endeavours to continue to expand and infill its mineral resources and work to de-risk and grow these assets, ostensibly with the view to unlock synergies between the two assets.

Since the discovery of gold in the early 20th century, the Red Lake District has produced over 30 million oz. gold, underpinned by the prospective Archean greenstone belt.

West Red Lake has a market capitalization of $95.8 million.