West Red Lake Gold Mines Reports Encouraging Drill Results from Starratt-Olsen Mine

September 16, 2026 — Leads & Copy — West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV: WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) has announced encouraging assay results from the initial five holes of its 12-hole surface drilling program at the historic Starratt-Olsen Mine in Ontario, Canada. The past-producing mine is situated approximately 1.1 kilometres southwest of the company’s Madsen Mine.

The assay results, released on September 10, 2026, indicate the presence of significant gold grades and thicknesses in areas historically mined at Starratt-Olsen. Among the highlights, Hole WRL26-054 intersected 1.5 metres grading 16.16 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, including a 0.85-metre interval at 24.60 g/t gold. Hole WRL26-055 returned 4.5 metres grading 5.16 g/t gold, which included a 1.5-metre section assaying 10.94 g/t gold.

West Red Lake Gold is implementing a hub-and-spoke growth strategy, positioning the Madsen mill and its associated infrastructure as a central processing facility for multiple high-grade, past-producing deposits in the Red Lake District. The Starratt-Olsen Mine is being evaluated as a potential future addition to this network.

This multi-asset approach aims to enhance operational flexibility, improve profit margins, extend the lifespan of operations, and support an increased production profile over time. As the company begins to access higher-grade, non-remnant mining areas at Madsen, its second-quarter 2026 financial and operating results showed a 51% increase in gold production from the first quarter, reaching 8,576 ounces, with gold sales rising 34% to 8,260 ounces.

Will Robinson, VP of Exploration for West Red Lake Gold, described the results from the first modern drilling at Starratt-Olsen as highly encouraging. "We have successfully demonstrated that Madsen-style mineralization of notable grades and thickness remains proximal to the historically mined areas," Robinson stated. He added that with Madsen currently in production, the Fork project advancing towards inclusion in the 2027 production profile, and the Rowan Project in the permitting stage and under evaluation for a combined Pre-Feasibility Study with Madsen, Starratt presents another opportunity to assess the potential of the broader mineralized system along the Madsen structural trend.

Robinson further noted that the initial program was designed to test the upper sections of the Starratt system from surface. "Our team sees significant potential to continue exploring the main Starratt ore shoot at depth," he said. Evidence from numerous underground drilling and chip samples near the shaft bottom at Starratt, which yielded gold grades exceeding 10 g/t Au, suggests the system continues down-plunge. Historical data, including a 2016 drillhole that reported 2 metres at 27.3 g/t Au and 3 metres at 104.1 g/t Au with visible gold, reinforces this high-grade potential. The exploration team is considering accessing this deep area via the Madsen 16 Level exploration drive, which historically extended towards Starratt at an 800-metre depth and lies approximately 200 metres from the main down-plunge extension.

The Starratt-Olsen Gold Mines claims were first staked in 1926 and later re-staked in the mid-1930s. The mine commenced production in September 1948, operating for eight years and yielding 163,990 ounces of gold using traditional methods of air drills and dynamite, with ore manually shovelled into carts for hoisting to the surface.

The summer drill program at Starratt involved 4,100 metres of oriented HQ diameter diamond drilling across twelve holes. The program focused on testing extensions of previously mined areas and searching for new sub-parallel lenses, marking the first focused drill-testing effort in the main historic mining zones since operations ceased in the 1950s. Starratt is the second-largest historical gold producer at the Madsen property, with approximately 164,000 ounces of gold produced between 1948 and 1956 at an average grade of 6.17 g/t gold.

West Red Lake Gold’s Rowan Project, another key component of its strategy, is located within trucking distance of the Madsen mill. In June 2026, the company announced an updated 2026 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Rowan, alongside a maiden MRE for the nearby Mount Jamie deposit. The Rowan project saw an increase of 70% in indicated gold ounces to 335,058 ounces at 13.04 g/t gold, and a 52% rise in inferred gold ounces to 179,029 oz at 15.31 g/t Au. A modest exploration expenditure of C$3.5 million and 6,300 metres of drilling resulted in a discovery cost of approximately C$17.60 per ounce of gold.

The technical information in this 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.

Source: West Red Lake Gold Mines