TORONTO, Sept. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) (“Wesdome” or the “Company”) today announces additional high grade results from the ongoing underground exploration drilling of the Kiena Deep A Zone at its 100% owned Kiena Mine Complex, in Val d'Or, Quebec. Additionally, drilling has identified a well-defined plunge, that extrapolated up plunge into areas of historical drilling, indicates that the mineralization could extend up plunge an additional 250 metres, while the down plunge and down dip extensions of the zone remain open.

Composite Plan View of the Kiena Deep A Zone Detailed Composite Plan View of the Kiena Deep A Zone Longitudinal Section 510 - Kiena Deep A Zone

Recent drilling has extended the gold mineralization of the A Zone beyond a 350 metre strike length announced in a news release dated June 26, 2018. Today’s drill results have continued to extend the zone of mineralization an additional 50 metres down plunge to the southeast. Following the continued success of the ongoing diamond drill program, the Company took the decision to extend the current exploration platforms by a total of 450 metres to continue to define the possible extension of the Kiena Deep A Zone to the northwest, southeast and down dip. A total of 243 metres of additional development have been completed since July, and is expected to be completed at the end of October.

As this drill drift development continues, 4 drills are in operation on the A Zone and remain focussed on definition drilling in advance on the Q4 resource estimate, with less focus on extension drilling along the margins of the mineralized zone. Since July, a total of 18 holes totalling 5,200 metres have been completed (Figure 1A and 1B). The definition drilling has continued to confirm the overall continuity of the Kiena Deep A Zone and improve our understanding and confidence in the controls on gold mineralization. Highlights of the new drilling are listed below and summarized in Table 1.

 Highlights:

Kiena Deep A Zone

• Hole 6339: 53.6 g/t Au over 6.2 m core length (18.38 g/t Au cut, 5.3 m true width)
• Hole 6321: 177.3 g/t Au over 5.1 m core length (6.5 g/t Au cut, 5.1 m true width)
• Hole 6336: 18.7 g/t Au over 12.9 m core length (7.0 g/t Au cut, 6.8 m true width)
• Hole 6333: 37.3 g/t Au over 8.4 m core length (6.8 g/t Au cut, 5.8 m true width)
• Hole 6338: 163.8 g/t Au over 3.0 m core length (13.1 g/t Au over 2.6 m true width)
• Hole 6338:  14.1 g/t Au over 12.1 m core length (10.3 g/t Au over 11.9 m true width)

All assays cut to 34.28 g.t Au. True widths are estimated.

Recent drilling has identified a well-defined, moderate plunge of approximately 45 degrees to the SE to the gold mineralization that occurs predominantly along the basalt – chlorite-carbonate schist boundary (Figure 2: Longitudinal Section of the Kiena Deep A Zone).  The recent drilling has defined this plunge extending from the 1,600 metre elevation (1,400 m below surface vertically) to the 2,000 metre elevation (1,000 m below surface). Extrapolating this well-defined zone up plunge is in good agreement with two historic holes. Hole 6146 that returned 6.63 g/t over 11.0 metres (core length) from a zone located over 100 metres to the northwest of our current drilling and is interpreted to be the up plunge extension of the A Zone. Furthermore, hole 5976 returned 7.26 g/t Au over 3.0 metres (true width) at the 2,300 metre elevation, or approximately 350 metres vertically above our current drilling level and in excess of 300 metres to the northwest of the currently defined A Zone. Although this area will be the focus for continued drilling, this initial interpretation indicates that the up plunge mineralization could be extended more than 250 metres. Both of these holes intersected quartz veining with visible gold proximal to the projected basalt – chlorite-carbonate schist boundary that is similar in character to the Kiena Deep A Zone currently being drilled.

Additionally, the down plunge and portions of the down dip extension of the A zone remains open.

Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO commented, “We are very pleased with the recent drill results that are providing more confidence in the continuity of the deposit and continuing to extend the gold mineralization up and down plunge. Good progress is being made on the additional exploration drift development that will allow us to more effectively test the size of this deposit, and complete infill drilling more quickly. We remain committed to developing a resource estimate in the fourth quarter and this development will greatly aid our understanding of this exciting discovery. We recognize at this time that this will definitely be a ‘snapshot in time’ as we have not closed off the Deep Zone A up plunge, down plunge, and down dip.”

“We are also very excited about the potential up plunge extension of the Kiena Deep A Zone that has been well defined with recent drilling and extrapolated with more historic information. This extension would have the potential to significantly add to the resource base, as it would extend the mineralization over 300 metres higher in elevation than our current drilling level. Additionally, the location of this mineralization would be easily accessible to existing mine development and could be a vital component in any restart scenario.”

TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE

The technical and geoscientific content of this release has been compiled, reviewed and approved by Bruno Turcotte, P.Geo., (OGQ #453) Senior Project Geologist of the Company and a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 -Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Analytical work was performed by Techni-Lab (ActLabs) of Ste-Germaine-Boule (Quebec), a certified commercial laboratory (SCC Accredited Lab #707). Sample preparation was done at Techni-Lab (ActLabs) in Val d'Or (Quebec).  Assaying was done by fire assay methods and all samples with visible gold were assayed by metallic sieve method at Techni-Lab (ActLabs) laboratory in Ste-Germaine-Boule (Quebec). In addition to laboratory internal duplicates, standards and blanks, the geology department inserts blind duplicates, standards and blanks into the sample stream at a frequency of one in twenty to monitor quality control.

ABOUT WESDOME
Wesdome Gold Mines has had over 30 years of continuous gold mining operations in Canada.  The Company is 100% Canadian focused with a pipeline of projects in various stages of development.  The Eagle River Complex in Wawa, Ontario is currently producing gold from two mines, the Eagle River Underground Mine and the Mishi Open pit, from a central mill.  Wesdome is actively exploring its brownfields asset, the Kiena Complex in Val d’Or, Quebec.  The Kiena Complex is a fully permitted former mine with a 930-metre shaft and 2,000 tonne-per-day mill.  The Company has further upside at its Moss Lake gold deposit, located 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario.  The Company has approximately 134.2 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “WDO”.

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This news release contains “forward-looking information” which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the future financial or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances, management’s estimates or opinions should change, except as required by securities legislation. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company has included in this news release certain non-IFRS performance measures, including, but not limited to, mine operating profit, mining and processing costs and cash costs. Cash costs per ounce reflect actual mine operating costs incurred during the fiscal period divided by the number of ounces produced.  These measures are not defined under IFRS and therefore should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to or more meaningful than, net income (loss) or cash flow from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of our financial performance or liquidity. The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow

Table 1: Kiena Deep Zone A Drilling Results

Assays

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