West Red Lake Gold — can they pull off the hub and spoke model?
West Red Lake's new head of IR on the Q2 turnaround at the restarted Madsen mine, the high-grade Rowan satellite, and why she thinks the market still values the company as a single-asset miner.
One-line take: This is management, not an outside analyst, so read it as the company's own case. After a weak Q1 spent on development, Madsen's Q2 showed the turnaround: production +51% (~8,500 oz), ounces sold +34%, AISC down 30% to $3,284/oz, ~$9.7M free cash flow, and mill throughput of 842 tpd against an 800 tpd rating. The pitch is hub and spoke: use Madsen's permitted mill and tailings as the hub and truck in high-grade ore from satellites (Fork in 2027, Starratt-Olsen being drilled, and Rowan — ~335k oz indicated at 13 g/t, ~80 km away) to become a mid-tier Red Lake producer. The near-term catalyst is a combined Rowan–Madsen pre-feasibility study due by end-September. The watch items are the balance sheet: cash flow is still only neutral while development continues, working capital was slightly negative, the Nebari loan is being actively evaluated for refinancing, and ~110M warrants sit against 413M shares.
1. Stocks & names mentioned
A company-IR interview: the WRLG stance below is management talking its own book (constructive by construction), not an independent recommendation. The district peers are passing references.
| Ticker | Name | Research | View | What she said | At |
|---|
| WRLG | West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV: WRLG; OTCQX: WRLGF) | QT · SA · STK | Positive | Management view (VP IR): a newly producing, high-grade Red Lake gold miner building a "hub and spoke" platform around the permitted Madsen mill. Q2: production +51%, AISC down 30% to $3,284/oz, ~$9.7M FCF. Madsen reserves ~480k oz at just over 8 g/t; Rowan satellite ~335k oz indicated at 13 g/t. She argues "we're being valued as a single asset" and the combined Rowan–Madsen PFS (due end-September) should help close the valuation gap. | 03:38 |
| KGC | Kinross Gold | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Passing mention: named ("Akin Ross" in the auto-transcript, most likely Kinross) among the bigger companies in the Red Lake district, as evidence of a mining-friendly jurisdiction. | 03:56 |
| EVN.AX | Evolution Mining | SA · STK | Neutral | Passing mention: "Evolution" named among the bigger companies operating in the Red Lake district. | 03:56 |
| EQX | Equinox Gold | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Passing mention: "Equinox actually has a property right next door to Madsen." | 03:56 |
2. Talking points
01:11 Who she is and why she joined
- About 20 years in resources (communications, capital markets, governance); grew up in Yellowknife. Joined West Red Lake as VP comms & IR in April 2026, as the company moved from development into commercial production.
- 01:56 Drawn to restart stories (existing infrastructure, faster path to production) and to CEO Shane Williams' team of experienced mine builders and operators.
02:46 IR approach: predictable disclosure, the right shareholders
- Production summary 10–15 days after each quarter, then financials. She is working to balance long-only institutions with the "right retail" who have the patience for a multi-asset build-out.
03:38 Elevator pitch: hub and spoke in Red Lake
- A newly producing gold mine in Ontario's Red Lake District (20M+ oz produced historically; home to bigger names such as Kinross, Evolution and Equinox). Took over Madsen in 2023.
- 04:33 The permitted mill and tailings are the central "hub"; satellite deposits are the "spokes." The long-term goal is to consolidate the region and become the next mid-tier producer.
05:29 Q1 to Q2 turnaround
- Q1 prioritized development, so output was lower and AISC higher. Q2: production +51%, ounces sold +34%, AISC down 30%, landing within 2026 AISC guidance of ~$2,800–3,600/oz.
- 05:59 ~$9.7M free cash flow in Q2, a surface stockpile being built, and higher grades.
06:05 Grade: Madsen and Rowan
- Madsen PFS: ~480k oz probable reserves at just over 8 g/t; ~1.6M oz indicated at 7.4 g/t plus ~360k oz inferred at 6.3 g/t. "Top five highest-grade deposits in Canada," open at depth.
- 06:56 Rowan: indicated resource up 70% to ~335k oz at 13 g/t, plus ~180k oz inferred at 15 g/t.
- 07:27 Fork enters the production profile in 2027; Starratt-Olsen is the next satellite being drilled.
08:51 Rowan logistics and the combined PFS
- About 80 km by road around the lake; ore would be trucked to the Madsen mill.
- 09:14 An updated pre-feasibility study combining Rowan and Madsen is due "toward the end of September."
09:40 Starratt-Olsen drill results
- A past-producing, high-grade deposit ~1 km from Madsen, potentially reachable from Madsen's underground infrastructure. The first 5 of 12 holes were released the morning of the interview, with the rest to follow within weeks; no 43-101 resource yet.
10:52 Production guidance and mill throughput
- 2026 guidance 35,000–45,000 oz; 2027 guidance comes in the new year and is expected to grow with Fork and deeper, previously unmined areas of Madsen.
- 11:29 Q2 mill average 842 tpd vs an 800 tpd rating, tracking toward 1,000 tpd for the rest of the year.
- 12:13 Target of at least 1,000 tpd consistently next year; Madsen steady state ~70,000 oz/yr.
13:32 Where AISC should settle
- "Comfortably between that 2,500 to 2,800 mark" once ramped up, the lower end of 2026 guidance (no 2027 guidance yet). Canadian mines are high fixed-cost: ~60% of fixed costs are labor.
14:20 Balance sheet: cash, Nebari debt, gold-linked notes
- $31.2M cash at Q2 end; still "cash flow neutral" while underground development continues over roughly the next 12 months.
- 15:03 Principal repayments on the Nebari loan started in H1. The debt was short-term, back-end-loaded development financing, and the Nebari loan is being "actively" evaluated to lower the cost of capital.
- 15:45 Asked about slightly negative working capital and a possible financing, she pointed to Q2 FCF and the stockpile but said the company is "always looking at ways" to strengthen the balance sheet.
16:31 Share structure, ownership and coverage
- ~413M shares outstanding; ~110M warrants, including 21.5M at C$0.68 expiring in November.
- 16:50 ~60% retail, just under 30% institutional, the rest insiders and friendlies; ~3.5M shares a day traded over the last 90 days.
- 18:00 Covered by Raymond James, Cantor Fitzgerald and Velocity Trade Capital.
18:45 "Valued as a single asset"
- She argues Rowan isn't reflected in the share price; the combined PFS and execution should close the gap to peers and eventually move WRLG into a different peer group.
- 20:00 It will take "6 to 9 months" of consistent quarters to get the market comfortable with Madsen.
20:27 Catalysts: PFS and the shaft refurbishment
- The biggest catalyst this year is the updated PFS. Next is completing phase two of the shaft refurbishment.
- 21:20 Phase two will hoist ("skip") ~700 tpd directly from underground to the mill, complementing trucking and lowering costs.
21:56 Rowan permitting timeline
- Permitting is under way. Rowan is all underground with ore trucked to Madsen, so no surface processing permits are needed. Development likely in 2028, feeding production toward the end of 2029 "conservatively."
22:33 Why own it now, and the Q2 takeaway
- A valuation gap to close through execution: "over the longer term, I think patience will be rewarded."
- 23:36 The key Q2 message is that Madsen generated free cash flow; adjusted EBITDA was $22.1M.
- 24:06 Conference circuit: Beaver Creek, Denver Gold, the Nordic Summit (Stockholm, October), then European conferences and the Swiss Mining Institute in November.
3. In plain English
WRLG — West Red Lake Gold Mines Positive
West Red Lake bought an old gold mine, Madsen, in Ontario's Red Lake district and restarted it. This interview is with the company's own head of investor relations, so it is the company's pitch rather than an independent opinion. The rock is unusually rich: about 8 grams of gold per tonne, where many mines run at 1–3.
The strategy is "hub and spoke." Madsen already has the expensive, hard-to-permit parts: a mill that crushes the ore and extracts the gold, and a tailings facility that stores the waste. The plan is to feed that one mill from several smaller, very high-grade deposits nearby, the biggest being Rowan (about 13 g/t, trucked in from 80 km away). One mill serving several mines spreads the fixed costs over more ounces.
The story turned in Q2: output jumped by half, the all-in cost of producing an ounce ("AISC") fell 30%, and the mine produced cash for the first time. The risks are the balance sheet and patience. Cash flow is still roughly break-even while the company keeps digging new tunnels, it carries a loan it wants to refinance, and many outstanding warrants could add shares. Rowan won't feed the mill until about 2029, so the company is asking investors to wait for the rerating.
Editorial summary of the public YouTube interview on TokStocks Small Cap Podcast, published 16 September 2026 (video linked above). The speaker is West Red Lake Gold's VP of communications and investor relations. For personal study — not investment advice.