Wesdome Gold Mines (TSX: WDO) could lift annual production at its Kiena underground mine in Val-d’Or, Quebec, by roughly 10 to 15 percent through additional mining fronts, productivity improvements and technical optimization, without major new capital spending, chief executive Anthea Bath told The Northern Miner in a video interview in late August. Kiena returned to commercial production in 2022 and is now one of the Val-d’Or camp’s highest-grade producers, with four decades of stop-start operating history.
The lift would come on top of what the company calls its most robust reserve-based mine plans ever. Updated technical reports filed in August give both Kiena and Eagle River eight-year operating plans, and at Kiena the company sees a pathway to higher output while advancing Kiena East as a potential future mining centre with meaningful scale.
The drilling is where the bigger story sits. Bath described Kiena not as a “small cigar” but a “cigar box” whose limits are unknown, with an aggressive drill program revealing a potentially much larger mineralized system. The December 2025 surface program drilled nearly 38,000 metres, about 30 percent more than in 2024, and about 55,000 metres are dedicated in 2026 to advancing corridor targets and testing new ones identified from a drone magnetic survey. High-priority zones include Dubuisson, where drillholes returned exceptional grade and thickness, and where a new interpretation of vein orientation points to a larger deposit scale.
Wesdome is evolving from two mines into two emerging mining districts, with Eagle River testing open-pit potential at Mishi-Magnacon through a conceptual study over the next 12 to 18 months. The company is positioning its high-grade underground platform and brownfield pipeline as a value-driven mid-tier gold producer, and Kiena’s low-cost growth is the center of that pitch.