Wesdome 2012 year end reserves and resources estimates for its operating mines

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (WDO-TSX) is pleased to release updated mineral reserves and resources estimates for its 100% owned Eagle River, Kiena and Mishi gold mines as of December 31, 2012.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Proven and Probable Reserves increased 21%, net of depletion, to stand at 423,000 ounces
• Measured and Indicated Resources increased 15%, net of depletion, to stand at 668,000 ounces
• Inferred Resources total 186,000 ounces

President and CEO Donovan Pollitt, P.Eng., commented "Reserves and resources continued to grow, net of depletion.  We are investing in infrastructure and refining longterm development sequences to ensure that we will be producing for many more years to come.  Particularly, we are working hard to increase capacity and efficiency at our Eagle River Mill where throughput constraints limited our production growth in 2012.  Production growth was 17% in 2012 and we are aiming for 20% growth this year.  The geologists have given us a conservative resource/reserve base with increasing grades to come.  Refining efficiencies in mining methods, material handling, processing and development sequencing offer significant potential to increase margins over the medium to long term.  This year's increase in reserves and resources with a limited drilling budget serves to outline the tremendous exploration merit and potential of our assets."

RESERVES AND RESOURCES

The Company is a Producing Issuer as per national Instrument 43-101 section 5.3.

At Eagle River, proven and probable reserves in terms of contained ounces decreased 20%.  Grade was low because of severe dilution in a key stope.  We expect this to improve.  In 2013, we expect new drilling sites to be excavated which will enable us to drill where reserves remain open at depth.

All reserves and resources at Eagle River incorporate a dilution factor of 35%.  All reserves have been incorporated into the mine plan.  Reserves are outlined to a depth of 850 metres beyond which mine planning has not yet been undertaken.  In 2012, drilling at 25 metre centres below 850 metres in the 811 Zone outlined indicated resources totalling 48,000 tonnes at 16.8 gAu/tonne to a maximum depth of 1,000 metres.  The two deepest holes drilled here returned 45.91 gAu/tonne over a true width of 4.50 metres and 59.67 gAu/tonne over a true width of 1.81 metres at respective depths of 957 metres and 975 metres.  We will be in a position to drill potential extensions of this zone to depths of up to 1,300 metres in the second half of 2013.

The Eagle River mine has now been producing gold continuously for 18 years.  To date, the mine has produced 919,086 ounces of gold from 3,170,934 tonnes at an average recovered grade of 9.0 gAu/tonne.

At Kiena, proven and probable reserves in terms of contained ounces increased 76% year over year.  This is principally due to the inclusion of portions of the Dubuisson and Northwest Zones into the mine plan and hence reserves (120,000 ounces).  Measured and indicated resource estimates increased 45% primarily due to preliminary inclusion of three lenses in the S50 Deep area located 150 to 350 metres below existing workings.  Indicated resource estimates here total 921,000 tonnes at 4.5 gAu/tonne or about 130,000 ounces.  These lenses remain open at depth.  All reserve and resource estimates at Kiena employ dilution factors of 10 to 25%.

Recently, the Kiena mine has been operating on very tight margins.  Reserve and resource estimates are based on a gold price of $1,650 Cdn per ounce.  Mining viability, reserve and resource estimates are acutely leveraged and reliant on external factors, particularly future gold prices.  Within our longer term development and mine plan we are focused on developing and sequencing in order of increasing grades.  This will help reduce this inherent risk.

Since Wesdome restarted production at Kiena in August, 2006, the mine has produced 190,938 ounces of gold from 1,729,342 tonnes at an average recovered grade of 3.4 gAu/tonne.  Historic production at Kiena now totals 1,749,705 ounces from 12,441,463 tonnes at an average grade of 4.37 gAu/tonne.

The new Mishi mine commenced commercial production January 1, 2012.  A total of 64,915 tonnes were milled at a recovered grade of 2.3 gAu/tonne to produce 4,776 ounces of gold.  This reconciles well with previous reserve estimates taking a 91% recovery rate into account.  Proven and probable reserves, in terms of contained ounces, increased 36% net of depletion compared to last year.  The main addition to reserves came from planning a 200 metre long eastern pit extension which added 290,000 tonnes at 1.8 gAu/tonne.  We are employing a 1.0 gAu/tonne cut-off grade for the block model and reserves are situated within a planned pit which now has a life-of-mine stripping ratio of only 2.71:1.  To date we have mined 1,213,664 tonnes of waste and 95,881 tonnes of ore at a stripping ratio of 12.66:1.

The current mine plan is now about 20% of the resource.  The first year's results reconcile very closely with the resource model.  This gives us confidence that further drilling is likely to cost-effectively continue to increase reserves.

In addition to its operating mines, Wesdome's resource base is complemented by significant indicated and inferred resources found on its 100% owned Wesdome Property in Val d'Or, Quebec and through its 57.6% owned subsidiary Moss Lake Gold Mines Ltd.  For details on these other assets please view 43-101 compliant technical disclosure available at www.wesdome.com or www.sedar.com.

ABOUT WESDOME

Wesdome is celebrating its 25th year of continuous mining operations in Canada.  It currently has three producing gold mines with wholly-owned mining and milling complexes located in Wawa, Ontario and Val d'Or, Québec.  The Company has 101.9 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "WDO".

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.

SOURCE Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.