West Red Lake Gold Mines

Morning, everybody. My name is Jim, President, CEO of West Red Lake Gold Mines. I’m here to talk a little bit about West Red Lake and our strategy on developing within the Red Lake region, a pathway to this 150,000 ounce a year production in Red Lake. I have some forward-looking statements which I will be going through, so please review them on our website.

Yes, we’re in Red Lake region of Ontario. So this is a very fabled area within Canada. It’s produced over 20 million ounces of gold at an average grade of around 16 grams per ton. So we have two properties in Canada. In this region, we have the Madsen Complex, which we bought a number of years ago. So this is fully in production at the moment. We went back into commercial production in January of this year, and at the moment, this is in ramp-up in 2026. We also have another property in this region called our Rowan property, which we’ve just put out a new resource on. And so we are creating that hub and spoke model over time in Red Lake, where we believe we can get that pathway to 120,000 ounces a year.

Our mine is very strategic in Madsen. It’s fully permitted. We have a fully IBA agreement in place. We have ample tailings opportunity, and we have a mill that can be ramped up from currently 800 tons a day to over 1,500 tons a day. Again, a little bit to show you Madsen and Rowan. Rowan the property is about 80 kilometers by truck, trucking the material, and our concept is to use the Madsen facilities and truck material from our Rowan property into the Madsen Complex.

We’ve done a PEA last year on Rowan, so we can show a plan of 30,000 to 35,000 ounces a year from our Rowan deposit, a small underground mine. And within Madsen, we’ve done a pre-feasibility study to show that pathway to 65,000 ounces a year. So combined, we have 100,000 ounces a year production in Red Lake as we develop. And we are working on a pre-feasibility study currently that combines those two projects together to show that pathway to 100,000 ounces a year over a ten-year mine life.

Again, with Madsen, we are in production. We went into commercial production in January of this year. We had a Q1 and a Q2 and really 2026 is about ramp-up. You can see our Q1. We’ve had significant ramp-up from our ounces from Q1 to Q2 and with our revenue cash flow continuing to ramp up. And we expect as we go into Q3 and Q4, we’ll expect to see that ramp-up continue. And I would expect by into Q1 of next year, we’ll be in that throughput rate that will continue as our normal throughput rate. So again, 2026 a little bit, get Madsen up and running, ramp up Madsen over time. As we get into 2027, there are a number of different areas that we would focus on that I’ll be able to go through to show you how we use that ramp up and ramp up from there. And then as we get into ’28 and ’29, we bring in our other deposit from there and use that ramp up.

So I’m gonna go into a number of different areas here to show that. So again, Madsen has a bit of a history as people would probably be aware, but I think our strategy is a little bit different. We are multiple complexes. There are multiple complexes around Red Lake that we saw that will use us to buffer our production. Obviously, the Madsen mine has lots of depth extension. We’re mining currently in this 904 area, you will see quite high up in the system. But also there’s a number of other deposits, the Fork deposit, which I will get into, and also the Starratt-Olsen deposit, which is another historical mine on the property. These are ones that we are drilling and exploring and developing to, which will give us this multi-platform growth in Red Lake, as well as the depth extension that I will go through.

Again, the questions I get a lot from Madsen: “Well, it’s a remnant mine. How do you plan on developing Madsen and ramping it up?” This is a case in point. This is called our 904 area. We’ve had fantastic drill results over the last three to four months. You can see some of the high grades, good mining widths. And we’re just really into the top of this 904 area. So this is an area that was never mined historically. It was left by the historical mining. And so it’s a large panel, it’s five-level complex. And so this is an area that will move into the production plan in 2027. So this is one of the key areas for next year, high-grade area within the existing Madsen mine. There are a number of these as we go down deeper in the mine. There are a number of these non-remnant areas, which will form the basis of 2027 and 2028 production plan over time.

A little bit again, there’s the Fork deposit. This is another deposit that we drilled over last year. We are now doing development, underground development. It’s only 400 meters away from the Madsen mine. We’re halfway through that development down into that Fork deposit. Fork has about 50,000 ounces at that five to six grams. And again, this is a non-remnant area, another independent mine in the Madsen mill. So if you think about it, 904 and Fork become the key production areas in 2027 and 2028. We also have the mining of Madsen as well. So we have three production centers feeding into our Madsen mill.

Another mine is Starratt-Olsen. This again was a mine that was drilled or was produced back in 1950. Again, we are drilling that currently at the moment. It is another only 400 meters away from Fork deposit, and we will be drilling that this year. If we can develop a resource on that, which we know there’s drilling results on it, we will then be using that develop next year, and then that’s the periodicity we are working on. There’s a number more of these deposits which we will have always an independent mine feeding into Madsen Mill.

Interestingly, you can see there, level 16 there on the bottom of the Madsen Mine. This was an area back in the 1950s. They actually developed a level. It’s about half a kilometer all the way out along towards Starratt-Olsen and towards Fork, and that shows the potential. There’s lots of drilling results we have from down there, and that shows the plunge line of Starratt-Olsen and Fork towards that level. So that gives a lot of opportunity for us to go in, do a lot of drilling, and chase those plunge lines of both Starratt-Olsen and Fork down at depth. So that’s what we’re very excited about. We’ve been down at that level. We’ve dewatered down there, and our team are getting set up to do drilling down deep at the bottom of Starratt-Olsen Mine.

I’m also gonna talk about a lot of the expansion and exploration associated with Madsen. So one of that area that’s highlighted there is called the derelict area. This is an area that was excluded from our pre-feasibility study that we did last year. We are doing an extension drive across the ore body, which really opens up that whole area and whole plunge that was excluded from the pre-feasibility study and our reserves. At the time, it was a distance away, but once we put in this drive, we’ll be able to access that material and develop it further.

I’ll talk a little bit about our Rowan property. Rowan is another property we picked up. It again has a historical production across it. Mount Jamie, Rowan Deposit, Red Summit, they were all independent mines back in the day. And we drilled that over the last number of years. Again, it’s a very, very high-grade satellite. We’ve got over 500,000 ounces at over 14 grams, which is actually one of the highest grade undeveloped underground mines in Canada at the moment. We’ve seen the depth extension of that, pretty typical. And there’s a roadway from Rowan to Madsen. It’s about 80 kilometers of a trucking distance. And so we’ve done a PEA on Rowan showing a 35,000 ounce a year production feeding into our Madsen mill. Given our Madsen mill has the potential to ramp up from 800 to 1,500 tons, we have that opportunity to bring that material in. And the trucking calculation we’ve done, think of it, you lose about a gram a ton over the time as you bring that material in. So that gives you a multi-platform growth within Red Lake.

Again, a little bit on Rowan. It’s a very different system than Madsen. It’s quartz vein hosted. It’s very close to surface. We haven’t drilled it very deep at the moment. And within that area, we’ve half a million ounces at 13 grams. It is open at depth, as you’ll see at the bottom of there. We’ve had our highest grade hits at the bottom of Rowan, as you see, as it extends in depth. And also, it’s very close to surface, so it allows us to get into ore very quickly. About six months of underground development, we attack into that ore body, and that allows us to develop that. We are currently in permitting of that process, and that would come into production schedule around 2029 of the process. So if you think about Madsen, where we are today, versus next year into 904 into Fork and then Rowan, that gives us that multi-platform growth all in non-remnant new fresh ore versus Madsen where we are today.

Again, a little bit on the highlights of the region. We have a number of deposits. Also in that region of Red Lake, there are a number of deposits which you can see there owned by different groups over the years have been consolidated. These are an opportunity for us. These are smaller deposits. They are non-core to the various companies that own them. They all have resources on them. A lot of them have high-grade resources on them. And that really gives us the opportunity over time to consolidate the whole district. There’s a couple of them we’re working on. There’s some of them we’re looking at. So really, you can see five to six different deposits around Red Lake consolidating in the region. We believe with Madsen and Rowan and a couple of other of these deposits, we see a pathway all the way to 150,000 ounces a year.

Our mill is doing currently 800 tons a day. We are mining 1,000 tons a day underground for Madsen. So that gives the potential as we take on these other deposits to ramp up over time and develop a multi-asset distri— We have a permit. It’s very strategic. We have a permit. We have First Nations support in the region. And we also have over $315 million of tax losses associated. When we bought the asset, we brought on a lot of tax losses associated with that. And also with the new tax regime that’s in Canada, both Rowan and these other deposits can be developed under that profile. So that allows us to raise money under CDE associated with that to develop the project as we go forward.

A little bit on our share structure. Current market cap is just over 300 million Canadian dollars. We have a number of analysts cover at the moment, and we’ve quite a lot of warrants outstanding, which potentially will bring in money over time. I would also show the value proposition. 150,000 ounces in the tier one location. A good analogy to that would be a Wesdome sort of structure, Hemlo sort of structure. That’ll give you the upside. Hemlo produces around 130,000 ounces, Wesdome around 150 to 170,000 ounces. So you can see the value opportunity that we can create over time. We’re pretty much in control of that. We own Madsen, we own Rowan, and we are in production at the moment. So a little bit of a summary on West Red Lake. I’m open for some questions if there’s any questions.

We do have some time for questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand so a microphone can be brought forward. Maybe a quick one from me then. Hard not to notice the positive free cash flow in Q2. Ask the obligatory capital return framework question. Do you have an idea in mind as the ramp up continues there, will there be capital returns to existing shareholders, or do you plan to put all of that straight back into the ground and development exploration?

So at the moment we’re in a ramp-up phase, so most of that money is going back into developing these other sort... So I think once we get that platform established next year and as we ramp up that multi-asset strategy, that’s the time we will be looking to provide some capital return.

And you obviously have a lot of development ahead of you. How are you finding getting contractors? Do you have long-term agreements in place? That type of thing.

Yeah. So one of the advantages of Red Lake is it’s a lot of history of mining in that area. So about 50% of our workforce are locals, live in the region, and about 50% are fly in, fly out. So we have the potential to ramp up. It’s also an attractive area. We have good facilities and also because of the history of mining in the area, there’s a lot of local service suppliers built up, a lot of contractors in the region. So it’s really an established mining jurisdiction, which allows us to get staff and bring in contractors with the support to develop the project.

And what is your exploration budget for 2026?

So for 2026, our budget has been $10 million at the moment, and we will be ramping that up into next year. Obviously, given the potential, as this year was about developing cash, developing cash flow, some of that will go in next year into exploration on some of these other deposits as we grow the platform.

So is the main focus of this year and maybe next year’s exploration Madsen, or is it Rowan or both maybe?

So Madsen— Rowan is kind of, we’ve defined it. We now are gone into the permitting phase. So we have 500,000 ounces developed, so that would be used as a satellite deposit. So more so it would be developed on that Starratt-Olsen opportunity I talked about and Madsen as we get deeper Madsen. So allows us to build our platform of growth.

Just turn it back to the audience if there’s any further questions. Maybe a couple others then. So you mentioned that the mill capacity is 1,500 tons a day.

Yeah.

How long does it take to get to that 1,500 tons a day from mining?

So currently the mill was permitted for 800 tons a day. We’re currently running 1,000 tons a day through that mill because it’s an average over the year. And we’ve just installed a crusher that allows us to get to 1,300 tons a day. So very little CapEx. So I would say towards the end of next year we’ll be at that 1,500 tons a day and $20 million of capital just to extend, add some pipes, et cetera, et cetera.

And maybe along the lines of capital, how much life have you got left in the existing tailings facility? Do you need more capital for that?

So tailings facility, the advantage of this asset is again, it has a long life of tailings available. We’ve lots of space to expand our tailings and again, we put in a new tailings lift as we bought the property. We expanded our tailings capacity and we’re now looking at doing the next stage of that tailings capacity. The advantage of our land is that we’ve good support from the First Nation and the government as well from a permitting. So that’s not a permitting constraint.

One of the things you mentioned quite a few times during your presentation is there’s some parts of non-remnant mining versus remnant mining. What’s the difference in cost between remnant mining and not remnant mining and what are some of the challenges associated with remnant mining?

So this year is all about remnant mining. One of the challenges of remnant mining is obviously accessing the ore. It’s more pods of ore that you’re accessing, so it’s a lot of development to access that ore. So it’s quite costly. It’s about 40% more costly than non-remnant mining. Non-remnant mining is more you have panels of ore, so you’re accessing small amounts of development, a lot of ore. So it’s more representation of the amount of development to get to the amount of ore. So it’s much, much cheaper, much more efficient mining as we move into next year.

And is your development in ore or is it...

No. Development is in ore. Our ramp is in waste obviously. And then as we do our development into those ores, we’re doing long-haul open stoping. So as we develop in there, there is ore in there driving the ore. So about 25% of our ore is development ore and about 75% is stope ore.

Just one— Oh, there’s a question. Steve.

Just one other question, big picture. Does the management decide whether the plan is long-term to develop this asset, get it really efficient and sell it, or use it as a stepping board to grow free cash flow, look for some superior resource that’s yet been found and to step it into a bigger company, maybe buying another asset? Do you guys have any plans like that yet?

Yeah. Our strategy when we set up the company was to grow to become a mid-tier producer over the next number of years, and we picked this area and this opportunity as the first leg of that opportunity. And we can develop that over, and we’re in control of it. A lot of companies have projects and they have development to do and permitting to do. We’re in production today with a lot of growth potential and that gives us the opportunity to grow over time and use that as a first platform of growth. So we are actively looking for other opportunities.

And I think another advantage of our team is that I have a long history in our team of restarts. So it gives us the opportunity to get into these restart projects. There’s not a lot of groups today who can get in and build companies over time. Take a lot of these tier three assets, tier two assets that the big majors are dropping out of and then take these on, put in a team and turn them around. And I think that’s a very strategy that a number of companies have done over the years. Bema Gold through that. Equinox Gold have built over time and that’s the mirror strategy we’re looking at to build that over time.

And unless there’s any further questions, please join me in thanking Shane for his time today. [audience applauding]

Thank you very much.