West Red Lake’s Madsen mine commercial output: ramp-up and design notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
West Red Lake Gold Mines’ Madsen mine in Ontario has entered commercial production from 1 January 2026 after the mill ran in December at 86% of its permitted 800 t/d throughput, averaging 94.6% gold recovery and producing 3,215 oz. The operation, which yielded about 20,000 oz. in 2025, is targeting sustained nameplate capacity by mid-2026 while advancing the Fork deposit into the mine plan and bringing the shaft into operation. Drilling is delineating a new high-grade zone in Lower Austin’s 904 Complex, analogous to the 4447 zone in South Austin now in active mining.
Technical Brief
- Restart decision in May 2025 targeted an initial 500 t/d, with staged ramp-up through the year.
- Historic Madsen operation produced ~2.5 Moz Au between 1938 and 1999, informing current resource and infrastructure reuse.
- Pure Gold’s 2021 restart failed after ~1 year due to cost overruns, framing current cost-control focus.
- West Red Lake acquired the project in June 2023 and completed test mining plus major infrastructure upgrades before restart.
- 2025 output totalled ~20,000 oz Au, with 7,000 oz produced in Q4 alone during ramp-up.
- Shaft is nearing operational status, with engineering indicating potential to materially increase hoisted tonnage in the medium term.
- New high-grade 904 Complex in Lower Austin is being delineated, benchmarked against the already-mined 4447 zone in South Austin.
- 4447 zone was taken from definition drilling through design and access development to active mining in only eight months.
Our Take
Within our 558 Mining stories, very few Ontario gold items report such a rapid seven‑month ramp from restart decision to commercial production, which suggests West Red Lake has de‑risked key underground and plant bottlenecks unusually quickly for the Red Lake district.
Running the Madsen mill at 86% of its 800 t/d permit with 94.6% gold recovery implies there is still incremental upside from debottlenecking and process control before any major capex, which can be important for a C$436.4‑million company looking to grow cash flow without balance‑sheet stretch.
Advancing the 4447 area from definition drilling to mining in eight months signals a short drill‑to‑stope cycle, giving West Red Lake flexibility to sequence additional Red Lake district zones (such as South Austin or the 904 Complex) quickly as grade control and market conditions evolve.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
CMRR-io
Streamline coal mine roof stability assessments with our cloud-based CMRR software featuring automated calculations, multi-scenario analysis, and collaborative workflows.
HYDROGEO-io
Comprehensive hydrogeological testing platform for managing, analysing, and reporting on packer tests, lugeon values, and hydraulic conductivity assessments.
GEODB-io
Centralised geotechnical data management solution for storing, accessing, and analysing all your site investigation and material testing data.