West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.
West Red Lake Gold restarted the historic Madsen gold mine in Ontario's Red Lake district, declaring commercial production in January 2026. The company is ramping up toward 2026 guidance of 35,000-45,000 ounces as it works through its underground mine plan.
Notable vs. Peers
- All-in sustaining cost of $4,678/oz is 143% higher than the peer producer average of $1,924/oz.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · The Madsen Mine is already built and permitted; underlying permits (mine permit, environmental compliance approval for the mill/CIL circuit) were obtained by prior owner Pure Gold Mining circa 2019, ahead of Pure Gold's original construction. Exact original grant date not independently confirmed. · Source
- May 2025 · West Red Lake Gold's Board approved management's recommendation to restart the Madsen Mine immediately, following bulk-sample results validating mined tonnes/grade against modeled expectations. WRLG acquired Madsen out of Pure Gold Mining's CCAA bankruptcy in June 2023. · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · WRLG's own restart work (dewatering to 12-level, shaft rehabilitation/re-certification) began following its June 19, 2023 acquisition close and was underway through 2024, without one discrete construction-start announcement. · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Original first gold pour under prior owner Pure Gold Mining occurred the final week of December 2020, before operations were halted Oct 2022 (Pure Gold CCAA bankruptcy) and restarted by WRLG. WRLG's own restart declared commercial production effective Jan 1, 2026 (30 consecutive days at >=65% of permitted mill throughput). · Source
- Jan 2026 · Genuinely reached with a clean, single, well-documented date: West Red Lake Gold's own release, 'West Red Lake Gold Declares Commercial Production at Madsen Gold Mine,' confirms commercial production at the Madsen Gold Mine (Red Lake, Ontario) effective 2026-01-01, reached seven months after bulk sample completion. Madsen is West Red Lake Gold's sole current producing asset. This row was missing entirely prior to 2026-08-21 -- a genuine data gap, not a stage error; Miner.stage was already correctly PRODUCTION. · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal the underlying research identifies — whether a major already holds a JV, earn-in, or 5–19.9% strategic stake — isn't tracked yet and is absent from this score.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Appointed President and CEO of West Red Lake Gold Mines in June 2023 to lead the Madsen mine restart. Immediately prior, served as COO of Skeena Resources from March 2020 to June 2023; earlier roles include SVP of Canada and Greece Operations at Eldorado Gold and General Manager of Expansion Projects at Rio Tinto. Holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Technological University Dublin and an MSc in Project Management from the University of Limerick.
30 years of experience in junior mining; previously President and CEO of West Red Lake Gold before moving to the Executive Chairman role.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Frank Giustra, the mining financier who co-founded the company and remains a strategic adviser, holds about 9.4% -- but that is down from 22.09% in August 2022, and he filed below 10% in November 2024. Evolution Mining became a 6.53% shareholder (3,645,000 shares) as consideration for West Red Lake taking 100% of the Rowan property in February 2023, and has since been diluted much further than previously reported -- WRLG's own investor page shows 412,959,642 total shares as of 28 May 2026, putting Evolution's unchanged holding at under 1% today. VanEck's actively managed gold fund holds about 4.1% and Accilent Capital about 4%. Sprott Resource Lending is a lender rather than a conviction equity holder and was reported selling in March 2025.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
We haven't parsed this company's PEA/PFS/FS recommendations yet — cut-off grade, mine life, DCF/NPV, and the report's own next-steps guidance are a planned research pass, not live data for every company yet.