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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (“West Red Lake Gold” or the “Company”) (TSXV: WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Hayley Halsall-Whitney to the role of Vice President Operations.

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Ms Halsall-Whitney is a Professional Engineer with more than 20 years’ experience driving operational excellence at Canadian mining operations. She most recently held the position of General Manager at Wesdome Gold Mines’ Eagle River Mine (2020-2024), where she quickly led the operation to record production in 2021 through intense and constant attention to all facets of the Eagle River Mine Complex including the health & safety, environmental & tailings, maintenance, electrical, human resources, technical services (geology and mine engineering), and finance departments, at both the underground and Mishi open pit mine and mill operations. In her 3.5-year tenure she also delivered the first block model and Life of Mine update since mine startup and in doing so increased reserve and resource grades, decreased cash costs, implemented disciplined approaches to deployment of capital, supply chain governance, and contract negotiation, transitioned the mining and maintenance teams from contractor to inhouse, effected major safety initiatives, and brought in strong equity and diversity policies.

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Prior to her role as General Manager at Eagle River Ms Halsall-Whitney was the Eagle River Mill Manager, a role she came to from similar positions at North American Palladium as Mill Superintendent, and at Goldcorp’s Porcupine Mine as Processing Superintendent on the Century Project. To start her mining career Ms Halsall-Whitney worked as a process control project engineer with XPS Consulting (Xstrata) before moving to Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, where she progressed throughout the organization in senior engineering roles from the smelter to mill operations. As the first metals accounting engineer in their finance department, she led the development and implementation of an integrated metals accounting solution connecting the mines, mill and smelter operation’s measurement systems and processes straight through to the SAP financial and custom feed systems. Additionally, Ms Halsall-Whitney has authored several publications in the field of process control and metals accounting.

“I am delighted to welcome Hayley Halsall-Whitney to West Red Lake Gold and to the Madsen Mine,” said Shane Williams, President and CEO. “With bulk sample mining underway, two-thirds of planned operations staff in place including strong mine site leads, bulk sample processing planned for March, and first production targeted mid-year, the Madsen Mine is at point where an experienced leader fully focused on optimizing all aspects of underground mining is essential to smooth startup and reliable, optimized operations. Such leaders are rare in today’s mining industry, so we are thrilled that Hayley saw the opportunity we see in the Madsen Mine and chose to join our team.”

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Ms Halsall-Whitney has an impressive educational resume, starting with a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Concordia University and a BASc followed by a MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa. She then completed an EMBA at the Kellogg-Schulich School of Management, and recently completed the Advanced Management Program at Wharton Business School. Along the way she also completed Project Management and Advanced Project Management certifications.

ABOUT WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company that is publicly traded and focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the associated 47 km² highly prospective land package in the Red Lake district of Ontario. The highly productive Red Lake Gold District of Northwest Ontario, Canada has yielded over 30 million ounces of gold from high-grade zones and hosts some of the world’s richest gold deposits. WRLG also holds the wholly owned Rowan Property in Red Lake, with an expansive property position covering 31 km² including three past producing gold mines – Rowan, Mount Jamie, and Red Summit.

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ON BEHALF OF WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES LTD. 
“Shane Williams”  
Shane Williams
President & Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Gwen Preston
Vice President Communications
Tel: (604) 609-6132
Email: investors@wrlgold.com or visit the Company’s website at https://www.westredlakegold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT AND FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information generally can be identified by words such as “anticipate”, “expect”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “planned”, and similar expressions suggesting future outcomes or events. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations of management; however, it is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this news release and include without limitation, statements relating to the Company’s intended use of proceeds from the Credit Facility; final approval of the Loan Bonus Warrants by the TSXV, plans for the potential restart of mining operations at the Madsen Mine, the potential of the Madsen Mine; any untapped growth potential in the Madsen deposit or Rowan deposit; and the Company’s future objectives and plans. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

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Forward-looking information involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, market volatility; the state of the financial markets for the Company’s securities; fluctuations in commodity prices; timing and results of the cleanup and recovery at the Madsen Mine; and changes in the Company’s business plans. Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions, including without limitation, that the Company will continue with its stated business objectives and its ability to raise additional capital to proceed. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Additional information about risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company’s management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended November 30, 2023, and the Company’s annual information form for the year ended November 30, 2023, copies of which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

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The forward-looking information contained herein is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking information reflects management’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company. The forward-looking information is made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.

For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company’s continuous disclosure filings that are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/23729b54-4b7d-4cdd-8139-6f9fcff20ae0

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