Pure Gold ramps up for production

Pure Gold Mining is moving towards making a production decision at its advanced gold property in Red Lake.

The Toronto-based junior miner reports it’s making real progress in reopening a portal and fixing up an underground ramp at its high-grade Madsen Gold Project in northwestern Ontario.

With ramp rehabilitation work 68 per cent complete, the company is simultaneously conducting underground exploration with steps being taken to release an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) later this fall.

The ramp gives them access to its McVeigh, Austin, South Austin, and A3 deposits to get a better handle on the geological setting and potentially add more ounces to its resource count.

Underground delineation drilling began in July with 23 holes completed to date.

The company refers to Madsen “one of the highest-grade undeveloped gold deposits in the world.”

At the beginning of August, Pure Gold announced they had an indicated mineral resource of 1,648,000 ounces of gold in 5.78 million tonnes grading 8.9 grams per tonne gold (g/t), and an inferred mineral resource of 178,000 ounces in 0.57 million tonnes grading 9.4 g/t.

The Madson project is host to two former gold mines, including the Madsen Mine which once produced 2.4 million ounces.

Located southwest of Red Lake, the property has 27 levels of underground workings, a 1,275-metre deep shaft, headframe and a 550-tonne per day mill.

The company said all key power, water, heating, and ventilation infrastructure have been constructed, installed and commissioned.

"Projects like Madsen are extremely rare and we are pleased with the significant progress and achievements to date, and excited about the opportunity to move it through its next phase of evolution,” said Pure Gold president-CEO Darin Labrenz in an Aug. 24 news release.

“Our new high-grade resource estimate is underpinned by a solid geological model based on 14,627 drill holes and 36 years of continuous historical production. This forms a solid foundation for growth, and a unique opportunity to concurrently advance the project towards a production decision. We have our owners team in place and we are excited to be underground moving the Madsen Gold Project forward.”

The exploration team has also made more gold discoveries at its Russet South target, which will be included in a year-end resource update with results from some satellite deposits on the property.