First Mining Gold Corporation (QX) (FFMGF) News

Interesting article about market sentiment and how the Street is so bullish now. Good reason to be concerned about a market crash coming. It's called complacency.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-isnt-worried-about-a-stock-market-crash-thats-why-you-should-be-worried-3f393cb1?mod=mw_latestnews

This crap is laughable. The Slate Falls nation has their loincloth in an uproar because they weren't included on the draft environmental assessment from 2002? WTF.

That was nearly 23 years ago. Just add them to the list and be done with it. This is silly.

Thanks for posting that article.

This IMO is all just a big pissing match. FN's MO is they're always getting screwed by someone. If it's not the feds, it's the provincial gov. or in this case let's blame the mining company. They take turns on who they want to blame. This shit has been going on forever and it's worked pretty well for them.

What can be said in yet another impact assessment that hasn't already been covered in our EA assessment? Not a damn thing, this is all being done for their
negotiations benefit. Drag it all out and make everybody pay more out.

Thanks, I hope I can make it to the finish line with this investment. LOL

If we keep getting these mixed signals from the Company, that compounds things, I'm actually glad this issue with the RS went back up to Keith. I say that because Paul was NOT being straight with me. He knew Keith's stance on not doing RS and he still went into some detail to me about how it would work. Why? Maybe he was having a bad day.

In the meantime our share price is still on shaky ground. I'm unsure how low it has to go to throw up some red flags for Management, but we certainly should be getting attractive here for potential take-out offers.

Here is the article....if you view it and then go back later and to try to view it you might not be able to without signing up.

More posturing. I guess this will continue for a while.

First Mining Gold’s Springpole project reaches regulatory milestone
Staff Writer | December 3, 2024 | 12:38 pm News Canada Gold

First Mining Gold’s (TSX: FF) proposed Springpole gold mine has passed a key milestone following the receipt of a positive conformity determination from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) for the project’s final environmental impact statement (EIS).

The Springpole project, located approximately 110 km northeast of the town of Red Lake in northwestern Ontario, represents one of Canada’s largest undeveloped gold projects, containing proven and probable reserves totalling 3.8 million oz.

The deposit lies under a bay of Springpole Lake. The construction plan — currently under the federal environmental review process — involves building dikes and draining the bay to carve out a pit and access the orebody. Once approved, construction of the 30,000 tonnes-per-day open pit mine is expected to begin in 2027.

According to a prefeasibility study from January 2021, primary mining at Springpole is expected to occur for nine years, resulting in average annual production of 335,000 oz. The remaining three years of its 12-year mine life will be used to process lower-grade stockpile, for average annual production of 287,000 oz.

The final EIS, which was submitted Nov. 4, represents the culmination of two and a half years of consultation and engagement since the draft EIS of May 2022. According to First Mining, the report incorporates over 14 years of research and data collection and includes several optimizations completed since the PFS.

“Having received the outcome within 30-days of the final EIS being submitted demonstrates the diligence with which we have approached the assessment work and builds confidence in the regulatory process timelines for the project,” First Mining CEO Dan Wilton said in a news release.

The final EIS now enters the technical review phase, during the company will undertake to collaborate with all parties to address questions and comments. This process is expected to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2025.

First Nations seeking input
Last week, a northwest Ontario First Nation group directly downstream of the proposed mine claimed that the final EIS had been submitted by First Mining without any consultation.

In its statement, the Slate Falls Nation said it has been working on an impact assessment led by the Anishinaabe, the group of Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region, but has not had the cooperation of the company in completing the study.

The Nation also said the Anishinaabe-led impact assessment is only partially funded by IAAC, and the remainder of the work is being completed without a funding source.

“We support responsible resource development in our territory,” Delford Mitchell, manager of the Slate Falls Nation lands and resources department, said in a Nov. 26 media statement. “Mineral exploration companies visit our community almost every week, and we’re able to understand each other and build really positive relationships.”

Mitchell pointed out that when First Mining submitted its draft environmental assessment in 2002, it made no mention of Slate Falls Nation.

The company has since refuted the claims as “inaccurate” stating the final EIS report prepared by Ausenco had included consultation with the Nation.

First Mining recently entered into process agreements with two other Anishinaabe communities –the Cat Lake and Lac Seul First Nations — to support the impact assessment.

This is pretty rich....Anishinaabe-led impact assessment is now being completed without a funding source? So exactly what type of work are they doing? Who is doing the work? Are they professionals with credentials? Are they tribal members recognized regionally and/or nationally as spiritual leaders? Inquiring minds want to know.
https://www.mining.com/first-mining-golds-springpole-project-reaches-regulatory-milestone/

I agree wholeheartedly with you and ZenDomain.....reverse splits are horrible and I have noticed on several occasions what ZenDomain has mentioned....shorts totally decimate a stock right after the shares are consolidated.

Thanks to both of you for providing all of us with updates.

I wish you a good long and healthy lifespan and hopefully it will all work out. We have made our points clear to management and now things are out of our control. All we can do is be along for the ride for as long as the track holds.

The people wanting a RS are stupid, they don't know what they're asking for.

Dan has on several occasions (more smoke-blowing by him) said we would get a deal WELL BEFORE approval of the EA is given, let's see if he has clue about what he's talking about?

Watching paint dry IS the mining sector, moves like a glacier......very slowly. The definition of MINING TIME.

My advice to anyone investing in the miners is to do it while you're young, you may not live to see your profit if your over 60. Exactly the way I feel with this now. 8 years and counting.

Well if so - that is sad. People advocating to hurt their own investments. The timing sucks and we should all just go into hibernation until EA approval / deal is made. Until then, this stock price and the news around it will be like watching paint dry.

I totally believe there are FMG retail shareholders that want a RS to happen. How many I don't know, but they ask about that shit on every webinar call. Dan has to go through the whole schtick about Keith not wanting it on every call. The other day Paul went through the motion of telling me how institutions can't buy into the Company with the share price down here. Is that the retail investor's problem? Not the way I see it.

IMO we won't see any buybacks until they get a mine going. If Dan's past predictions about getting milestones accomplished has any precedence the starter pit may be going in 4-5 years. There's regular human time in this world, then there's MINING time, which is about five times as long. LOL

Yeah - there may be forces (outside the company) pushing for a RS (perhaps to then short) but Paul relayed specifically that Keith would consider that a failure. So - until Keith changes his mind, I do not see it happening. Paul also relayed the story of meeting with other stockbrokers who have advocated this due to the EPS being so small per share once they turn a profit. I disagree with that logic and argue that buy backs are the better play for shareholders if we are running a profit. In any case - I feel comfortable that RS is not likely ever given Keith's strong feeling on the subject.

As for the starter pit - I do not know if there is a difference between trucking current tailings or ore to a processing plant nearby or if by starter pit they are talking about developing their own plant at Duparquet. The distinction is not clear to me. Would they be able to transport ore to a nearby plant without the provincial approval?

Paul did agree that buybacks could be beneficial but obviously we are not profitable so he can't say it would happen. He did add that AG has done several buybacks and I did advocate for buybacks over RS in my email to Paul and Keith. In the end, I think more patience will be required and lets hope alternative funding can be found to minimize any further dilution (or a deal).

Thank you very much for sharing that with us here AND especially copying Keith about it. IMO he needs to know and be in the loop. I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

I'll say it again, we know Keith has been against doing a RS, but for some reason (I have no clue why) on Tuesday when I spoke with Paul he gave me the story I've related to the board. He gave so much detail about a possible RS I got the impression it had been kicked around by them already AND
he never said anything about it being off the table. I told him Keith had said we weren't going to have a RS. He knew that, so why his story about a RS is baffling. Maybe he was tired of shareholders bitching about all the outstanding shares balance?

Most of what you talked about with him, I would confirm was told to me. FYI the Duparquet starter pit project is still at least 3 years away. Dan mentioned that in his last interview and Paul confirmed it to me when I asked him about it. I will be pretty surprised that unless we get a deal announced sometime before Q3 2025 that they will be doing another offering. Let's see how that turns out.

I don't know what his response was to your question about doing buybacks, but he never responded to my email inquiry on that subject. I hope to God management is looking after the retail investor here, we're the Ones keeping this ship floating. Nice to get clarification again from the Guy at the top.

I did speak with Paul (he requested I share this information) and RS is not under consideration or discussion and it would be considered a failure by Keith. In fact, I copied Keith on my original email to Paul and Keith read it and requested Paul reach out to me. I will take that as a strong no to RS and it is not something Paul wants either as a shareholder. They are considering other financing options from starter pit at Duparquet (I forgot to ask timeframe but they are evaluating this option now), other interests they own and even royalty agreements on Duparquet for future financing if needed but believe 2025 to be capitalized. There could be some smaller dilution in the future for exploration purposes only related to a new law that allows them additional tax write offs just for exploration.

I think management being large shareholders themselves are in alignment with our goals as smaller investors. The outstanding shares count is not ideal but buybacks can and do happen - it could be an option eventually.

COminer, that's why it pains me to even talk about any sort of RS. Keith had been rock solid in the past about one NOT being done, so why Paul would even bring it up is baffling to me. I let him know that I was against seeing it done. Other retail shareholders may want to do the same.

I would agree with You that because of the skin management has in the Company that should bode well for good outcomes later on. Keith is a shrewd businessman, so I'm going to continue to stay positive. I would think that after some point, the selling would bottom and most of the shares held would be in strong hands. Where the final bottom is we don't know, but You could be right. I want to see this turn around.

What also concerns me is the stock market is breaking all time highs and our shares are breaking new lows. Not sure if that bodes well for us.

I'll be interested to see if Keith adds more shares today on the open market.

I know we're trying to move away from the RS discussion, but my $.02 is if MGMT starts to entertain a reverse split, we (retail) may as well mark our investments at $0. They will have already made the decision to send us out to slaughter.

The good news is that MGMT owns a lot of personal shares themselves, so it's prob not in their interest to do that. I don't know if they own a different share class, but I don't think that's the case. I really don't see Keith torching his reputation like that.

You never know with this stuff, though.

I still maintain we will see $0.05/shr before we see $.15/shr. Fun stuff, huh?

I couldn't agree more with what you're saying and that's exactly what I told Paul. Why do you need a RS split if you get a deal done? In theory, if the deal is a good deal for us and we're on financially solid footing going forward AND the share dilution can stop, ultimately that's the outcome we want. He also made the point to me that our share price would only rise on the back of a rising tide for the miners. I disagreed by saying if and when we get a deal done that will help our situation out the most. No doubt the big gains will come when the sector takes off, but ya gotta walk before you can run.

He alluded to doing a RS, only AFTER we had very good news come out that would eliminate any negativity about a RS taking place. If I recall correctly Dan tried to float this idea before until Keith put his foot down. How does such a move not fuck the retail investors?

I think in some capacity this has something to do with attempting to get the share price to a level where the institutions can buy in. IMO if we get a deal all that will take care of itself in time. God knows many of us can wait a little longer for that to come. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll be around to see this investment pay off.

P.S.: I meant to ask Paul when I talked to him about them doing another webinar maybe before year end on where we stand with FN's,the EA getting final approval, etc. and of course I didn't get around to asking about it. If Dan was on the ball he would do it.

I appreciate you passing along the information - because what he is telling you...he is telling others. Institutional investors would take a $1 share and short the fuck out of it back to .07 cents or lower with the way things are. If they get a deal - why do they need a reverse split? FMG could be their own worst enemy if they are going around talking this and who knows what else. Stock looks to not even hold .09 soon and this sort of narrative will not help. They need to get their story together and convey a plan to shareholders.

God, here's I hope the final thing I have to say on this subject with a RS.

Management wants to get more institutional investors/money coming into our shares. He mentioned that to me. Obviously with the share price down at these depressed prices, institutions can't buy in, so even at some point in the future, most likely after a deal gets done that may not matter, depending on how high our share price can run after the deal is made.

What price do our shares have to be for institutions to buy in? I'm not sure and I didn't ask Paul what the number has to be, but that's obviously another source they want to tap in the future. The problem I have with that line of thinking are you going to sacrifice the RETAIL investors that have been so loyal to you over the years by doing a RS and fucking them, just to open up the institutional money? I hope not. I wouldn't see Keith doing it, but getting to that institutional money may be the biggest reason for this RS talk. More speculation on my part.

They're finding some nice grades for sure.

Seablue, I was watching TV the other day around the date Trudope was paying homage to Trump down at Mar Lago. They were interviewing a Talking Head, I think he was Canadian, that was saying Trudope is on his way out. He was saying Trudope had an approval rating worse than Shit-for-brains Joe B., so you know that's low. I laughed when I listened to this Guy bash him.

When they get him out and most of his ilk, maybe the mining sector in Canada can make a comeback.

I agree with your post.

It's not my intent to be an alarmist or to talk out of line. I post here because I've always shared information on this board, especially when I speak with someone at the Company. I would encourage anyone reading posts (even mine) on message boards to do their own due diligence and make the inquiries to the Company deemed necessary.

Having said that, I would add another tidbit I remembered to the reverse split question that I asked Paul. When he mentioned a RS in reference to getting our share count down I asked about what the split quantity might be. He came back right away with a 10:1 ratio. He didn't think about it or say he didn't know what it might be. He immediately said 10:1

My take would be that he didn't pull that figure out of thin air and maybe there could have been some past discussion on it to have him give me that answer so quickly. Just my speculation.

I agree that Paul most likely was overstepping his pay grade in talking about reverse splits, especially when Keith has been so against doing one. I HOPE that's the case anyway. I suppose it could be possible that he's getting so much flak from shareholders about our share count that he's talking about reverse splits. Kind of baffling for sure.

I'll quit beating this dead horse now. LOL

https://nexgold.com/nexgold-intersects-6-3-metres-of-50-81-g-t-au-including-635-g-t-au-over-0-5-metres-from-visible-gold-core-sample-at-the-c-zone-east/

Interesting points made by all. I like the setup now in the sense that we seem to be heading into a more business/mining-friendly political climate. Hopefully a more moderate PM ascends up north and hopefully relaxation of some restrictive policies here in the US lowers fuel cost and cuts some administrative hurdles for miners and businesses in general.

I added 100k new shares on completion of the EA submission milestone. That is how I show appreciation. I don't think you need to lecture rest of the investors here - we all know the story. As you rightly pointed out, it has been 8 years of non stop dilution and share price devaluation. Investors have a right to complain - especially when FMG brings up reverse stock splits - a further insult to shareholders after 8y of patience.
Great if Keith has a plan - and even after the Jerrit Canyon deal, I trust that if anyone can pull off a good deal, it will be him. In the meantime, it would be nice if people like Paul at FMG would not talk about subjects they probably are not that familiar with and do not make the decisions on. If Keith will determine the outcome - we dont need Paul creating doubt and uncertainty at this time. He should not be acting like a politician but rather as a professional - authorized to discuss the facts and not randomly speculate on things.

Most of my questions to Paul revolved around share dilution and our number of shares outstanding, so maybe he was attempting to give ALL the options available to the Company to reduce our share count. He knows Keith's stance on reverse splits, and I told him I was against any reverse splits being done. I have told him that on other occasions too, but there is a faction of our shareholder base that want to see them do a reverse split. Why, I don't know.

I think a share buyback program at such time they can afford to do it makes sense to me. Enough with the share dilution subject already. It is what it is and hopefully we don't get fucked.

With regards to Paul, I think he is being quite careful what he can say publicly to investors. There are legal issues/aspects to every single question he will answer. It's just the way it is, so I sort of understand why he talks like a politician in this regard. Not saying anything directly and leaving many things up for the investor to figure out. It's frustrating as investors but that's just the way these IR people talk. Like we have seen they have removed a few interviews where I guess they felt they said "too much" although I don't think they did. It's just that these people have to be super careful about what they say or even imply to investors because you can be sued for everything and the regulators are always watching what companies are doing in this regard. And the fines for breaking these rules can be very severe for a still small company like FFMG.

With regards to Dan, sure we are very much entitled as shareholder to criticize him or any other members of the management team in that regard. I was mainly trying to point out that this bear market in juniors and developers has been really brutal in it's severity and many companies have gone bust. I don't think even the best CEO on the planet could really have done much since capital has been so scarce. Basically, as I see it, you could have stalled with the permitting progress and have a lot fewer shares outstanding right now. Could this have been a better option? To wait for sentiment to turn around and only then start fresh with more capital available? Maybe, none of us have a crystal ball so we really cannot know. I think the choice they made to push forward and get the permit work over with was a very brave thing to do seeing as it costs a shit load of money to do it. The fact that they were able to raise the money needed to get Springpole now almost EA permitted tells me we do have a talented team in place and lots of committed shareholders (and Keith) who are willing to see this story to the end. That is what still makes me very comfortable with this story. Yes, it has been frustrating as hell to watch our share go down for 8 years while the Nasdaq and AI stock etc. are partying like never before. But the reward will still be worth the wait in my mind. Keith has made many millionaires during his career and the dude has an insane track record in an industry where you really cannot survive unless you are savvy and stubborn as hell.

I think we are going to get a "switch" at some point here soon in the major markets and something will cause sentiment to turn in the entire mining space. History tells us this will happen because this is not the first time the mining sector has been hated. With the EA permit now on the clock and Duparquet growing into 10m ounces we are getting closer every day. Anyone with a working brain can already see how much potential we have here. We could be very well sitting on a very big new gold miner here in the making.

We know share dilution is going to happen, that's the only way these mining companies survive. What we need is a good custodian of how many shares are being issued. I see that as Dan's job. IMO Dan doing a good job in that regard is up for debate. Paul told me Tuesday we have 1.1 billion shares outstanding currently. I assume that number's correct.

Keith has said on multiple occasions that there would be no reverse stock splits and I took that as gospel, so why Paul brought it up to me when I talked to him on Tuesday is not clear. I'm not holding millions of FMG shares and don't want to see any sort of share consolidation, unless by doing so it benefits shareholders financially. I expect Keith to keep his word on that.

I don't know how long a deal is going to take to get done and I want to get the best deal possible, but IMO nothing short of an upturn in the miners will change this story. I want to see a deal get done BEFORE the Springpole EA is approved. That should be achievable.

As far as criticizing Dan's job performance, I think that's what shareholders should do, within reason.

I just want to add one more thing. Investors should keep in mind here that Keith still owns 5% of Snowline Gold (worth around 43m right now), another soon to be billion dollar exploration stock. If that stock gets bought out for 1-2B then Keith might end up netting close to 100m from this stock alone. What do you think he will do with all of that surplus cash? I think there might be a possibility where Keith might form a consortium of investors (including First Majestic) and just make a deal himself with FFMG. Not likely maybe, but most certainly possible. What I'm saying is there might be some bigger long term reason why we have not seen a deal with FFMG yet. Maybe Keith has some grand long term plans we are unaware of and maybe they have turned down several deals already because of this. This could also explain why the situation has been so frustrating for Dan because obviously he cannot say anything about what goes on behind the scenes and he has to sort of keep saying the same thing to investors over and over again about them talking to different groups. For sure there have been talks already about Springpole, but maybe Keith has already made up his mind about how the asset will be developed. I know Keith is a guy who likes to think big and if there is a way for him to get this company going where we can keep most of the ownership of the assets then most likely he will pursue that path no matter what anyone else thinks.

My point maybe here is that Keith is the ultimate custodian of this company. Whatever the company has done up to this point must have been approved by Keith. This guy does not fuck around in business that's for sure. We just have to trust him right now that whatever they are doing will ultimately lead to a great outcome for us as investors. If you don't believe that then we are all free to sell our shares at any time. Many have already done so, but I sure as hell will stick around to see how this story ends.

There will be no reverse stock splits. Keith has made this very clear many times already. He said it could be theoretically possible in some very unique situation where a major comes in and he is absolutely convinced it is in the shareholders best interest to do so. Other than that it is not going to happen, ever. He is the largest shareholder in the company and it would be very foolish to think he is not in control when the major decisions are made. FFMG is after all his "darling" as he calls it. The leadership are just people he has put in place to transform his vision of the company into reality. And we are getting closer every day.

I actually think it is very unjust how much heat you guys give Dan and his team for diluting shareholders. What would you have done in their shoes as CEO during this very brutal bear market? Not issue any shares for many years and thereby stall all progress in the company's assets? They have made it very clear from the beginning that the goal was to have the assets ready in the portfolio when the industry needs them the most, which is right now. They chose to push forward at a time when capital was super scarce in the industry. It's really a miracle they were even able to come this far when lots of developers and juniors have basically gone bankrupt during the same period. Had the market conditions been favorable then most likely we would have been bought out already. But unfortunately they were not so here we are. These are just things out of our control.

Also, I have yet to see a single shareholder here give credit to Dan for raising 60m dollars in non-dilutive financing from the portfolio. You know how many share issuances that saved us? Hundreds of millions of shares most likely. It's not like they have not tried to be as non-dilutive as they can when considering all financing options. Developers have no revenues so equity financing is a guaranteed reality for almost any company such as FFMG. Believe me I am not any more happy than you guys with how many rounds of financing we have done, but I have also bought more shares every single time they have issued stock. That is what Keith, Dan and all the rest of the insiders have done over the years and that is what you should also do as an long term investor to keep up. You should buy more all the time if you really believe in this company and bring down your average cost. I don't really know of any other way to invest in developers because the timeline is always the biggest unknown assuming you even have worthwhile portfolio to begin with.

I don't think investors here really appreciate how super hard this bear market has been on the entire industry. Like I really don't know what they could have done better. Either they would have stalled and stopped all permitting work, but that has costs too. Somebody needs to run the company any way in some form and that requires money. I think - as a quite large shareholder myself - that the way Dan has led this company has been the right way to do it. Believe me, Keith would have fired Dan long ago if he had any doubts about what management was doing. It's no like Keith is just investing millions of dollars into a company and let's management do what they like. He is a guy who likes to get shit done and wants results, so there is no room for any half-ass CEOs in FFMG as long as Keith is in charge.

I suggest you ask Paul that question.

Goal of a IR person is not to create doubt or imply anything and everything is on the table and a possibility. Even if this is true - he should know better to at least pretend FMG has a plan. Keith says no to stock splits but Paul says maybe? What is going on and who is running the show?

Trump is good about striking out very quickly at those he deems a threat. IMO that's what he sees the BRICS alliance as being.

The very first sentence of the article talks about how Trump's going to put a 100% tariff on all the BRICS countries. Will he do what he claims he will?
My guess would be no, but this type of talk can certainly help to roil world tensions down the road. We'll see what happens.

The gold buying won't stop because the Central Banksters know what's coming.

I think you're making a valid point about them buying back company shares if and when a deal finally gets done. IMO part of whatever cash windfall that we get from a bigger fish should go for that. There should be no reason for that not to happen. I don't know if we could structure a deal with a potential partner so they buy some of our FMG outstanding shares? That might be something worth exploring too.

Paul Harris is the IR person. He's also Keith's personal friend and he told me just yesterday that he in some capacity a part (in what capacity I don't know) with First Majestic and also First Quantum. He did some stockbroker work before he came onboard here. What he is costing the Company, I can't say, but he also is Dan's right-hand man in getting the word out about the Company. I know he does Company presentations himself at some of these conferences. I personally like Paul; he's a hard worker and when I contact him, he comes back to me quickly. That's more than I can say for some of his predecessors. IMO Paul is by far the best IR person this company has hired. If I had to guess, Keith hired Paul personally.

I would suggest You call and speak with him if you haven't already. Tell him about your company share buyback idea. I didn't bring it up when I spoke to him. He'll try to answer your questions to the best of his ability, but how much he knows about what's going on behind closed doors, I can't say. My guess
would be he knows more than he'll let on.

How much is this Paul character costing FMG every year? I was not at all impressed with him when he was on with Keith for a video - basically just a corporate jester to repeat basic information and hold Keith's cloak and scepter.

If we get a deal and can't afford to buyback a large percentage of our shares with a market cap right now of over $100m - it was a horrible deal. Share buybacks create value for shareholders - reverse splits do not. A deal should put FMG in a strong cash position that would allow FMG to both fund operations and development and also reduce share count which will add value to shareholders.

Quote from article:
"However, because gold is the main rival to the dollar, the precious metal is underrepresented in the members’ central banks."


Central banks will probably continue buying gold. 

Anybody see this? Looks like a tariff war could ensue. This could stir the shit pot.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/de-dollarization-effort-spotlight-after-trumps-tariff-threat-brics

IMO Dan had the bright idea to do these deals with our other properties, most likely thinking we could sell them for a profit later down the road. In theory it was a good idea, but unfortunately for the Company currently these assets aren't worth very much. Much like our share price.

I think probably the best asset FMG has is the balance, I believe it's 30%, of Pickle Crow. IMO they could get some significant cash for that asset. How much that would be is anyone's guess, but if they're serious about stopping the share dilution that would be the first thing they look into selling.

Your feeling about doing a reverse stock split is duly noted. That's also something that came up in my Paul conversation yesterday. He made the comment to me that under the right circumstances that Keith might consider doing a reverse split. I immediately told him I was against a rev.split under any circumstances. That's something Keith has harped on for a long time now, NO, reverse splits. IMO this is someone trying to get into Keith's ear, most likely Dan.

Paul tried to spin it to me that if AFTER we get a deal with someone that makes FMG financially secure that doing a rev. split wouldn't be perceived as a desperate move for the Company. We would have a deal in hand and it would be clear to the Street we're a going concern. My contention is if and when we get a deal that should solve our dilution problems, because we should not have to continue with these offerings. I hope Keith stands by his word on not doing a reverse split regardless of the circumstances. Why can't we structure a deal with someone that would have the partner buying up a portion of our outstanding shares? That could be part of a JV deal you would think.

Concerning Judy Shelton, I have not heard anything about her joining Trump's team YET. I've seen her making the media rounds recently because she came out with a new book and is out promoting it. I would love to see Trump put her in Powell's seat when his time is up in May of 2026.

I would argue the opposite - sell other non core assets for pennies on the dollar if needed to avoid further dilution. More dilution could quickly mean end game for FMG. A reverse stock split? For it then to decay back down to current levels most likely. Maybe run a tighter budget for 2025 and not pay people to fly around the world repeating the same things over and over. Has to be some alternatives to dilution.

Thanks for letting us know. Like you I think selling our interests in the other projects does not make financial sense as those shares have come down quite bit in value.......you would have to wait for their shares to appreciate before you got any kind of bang for your buck. That could take a while.....or maybe not in the case of NexGold as Goliath is further along on the Lassonde curve than any of the others.

I feel that every time additional shares of FF get issued the chances of a reverse split go up a little. I know Keith and Dan have addressed this quite frequently basically saying that is the last thing they want. Me too as those of us who invested or started investing in FF in 2015 and later have the most to lose when it comes to that. Looking down the road I guess it is not a big deal if FF gets a partner on Springpole. If the deal is right a lot of FF's financial concerns are alleviated and by extension so are a lot of ours as shareholders.

On another note.....have you heard anything about Judy Shelton and a possible position in the next administration? I have not heard boo about her until a day or two ago when I heard her name come up in radio talk while I was busy working so I did not have the chance to really zero in on what was being said.

Just got off the phone with Paul in IR. I didn't feel like he told me very much after we were through, but I'll share what we talked about.

My main question was around further share dilution going forward and this was his response. He said he thought we were good to go through 2025 before they would have to do another offering. I personally have my doubts about that being the case. I didn't ask him how much we have in the bank, but I don't think it will get us through all of 2025. He told me they are discussing ways to raise cash without more share dilution, like selling stakes in some of the other
holdings we still have like Big Ridge, Pickle Crow and Nexgold. This has been a standard response from Paul about this in the past and until some of those assets go up in value, they're the same as FMG....grossly undervalued. If they sold some of those, IMO they wouldn't get much for them right now. IMO it doesn't make a lot of sense to sell when they're not worth much.

The biggest thing I took from our conversation is when I asked him at what point in time he thought the FMG share price would start moving up? His response was basically that when the mining sector begins moving, so would our share price. Hmmm, I said what about if we get a deal done before that happens and he told me he thought our share price needed to be at higher levels from where it is now BEFORE a deal gets done. That answer surprised me and implied to me that a deal may not be as close as what I had hoped for. I think he was trying to tell me we'll get a much better offer is our share price isn't down at these depressed levels.

I didn't get to ask him about the Cat Lake or FN issues, but I suspect I know what his response would have been.

Yeah, it's good, but I think what it represents is that the EA is in the stove and still has some cooking to do. I say that because in this last Crux interview Dan made the comment about how now that the EA has been submitted, his expectations were that it would be approved by the end of 2025. That may be more wishful thinking on his part.

Dan said that any questions or issues that came up during this examination period would STOP THE CLOCK on the process moving forward. In other words, depending on how timely they resolve problems through the course of the EA approval this could take longer than expected. What those potential problems might be is up in the air, but let's hope Steve Lines and his people are nimble enough to minimize the hold ups and get the job done on time.

I try to base my "guesses" on what I hear coming out of Dan's mouth in some of these interviews he does. Having said that things can change, and I wouldn't expect Dan to be fully forth coming about what might be going on behind closed doors.

As I said in a prior post, in this last interview it seemed Dan's focus was that Springpole was the JV deal property and that Duparquet was not. Is that the course our Management want to take? Who knows, but that was certainly the way it sounded to me. I suppose if the right partnership was reached even Duparquet could be partnered with, but maybe their goal is to retain it for ourselves? We should have the money to move Durparquet forward AFTER a deal is done at Springpole.

Keith may see Duparquet as being a blue sky type asset with more resource upside in a better jurisdiction would be my guess. If I heard Dan correctly in this last interview he said it might be 3 years before they got something going with a high grade, starter-pit mine at Duparquet, that timeline might be moved up if we got a partner, but if Dan expects to do it in 3 years, my guess it would be 4 or 5 years from most of his past timelines being met.

That is good news, thanks for that. EOM

This really would be the ultimate setup for a massive increase in the share price. Announcing a 50/50 JV with a major/mid-tier while getting Duparquet going with that smaller operation would be such a total game changer in the next 1-3 years. I'm betting on both happening here soon. We might even partner up on Duparquet as well because maybe that will speed things up if we can structure a partnership where we remain the major shareholder, maybe like a 70/30 or 80/20 deal structure.

I'm planning on adding some more shares here in the next month or two because I really think this is getting close now. The majors are looking for assets and they know Springpole is now on the clock to receive its EA approval since we passed the conformity so quickly. This means many eyeballs are on this asset which again generates competitive tension to get it before everyone else rushes in.

At this point, a major that sits on billions in cash and credit limits can easily afford to take some minor permitting risk (at this point it's basically zero) on a 50/50 JV deal for Springpole. They would maybe need to put down 500 million or so, with an option to buy the rest of the project at a later stage. 500 million is peanuts to a major / mid-tier at these gold prices.

Dan spoke quite convincingly in that recent interview that Duparquet will get to that 10m oz. resource mark. This is also what I have been expecting with the drill results they have put out. I was expecting the resource base to grow to at least 8-10m ounces in the ground. I hope people realize how massive this is. I mean 5m oz. deposits are already very rare and we are talking double that amount here with a very possible scenario of growing it over time to 15-20m oz. This is something EVERY MAJOR gold miner will want in it's portfolio. Especially when we have such a world class jurisdiction.

Hang tight guys! I think we are going to be rewarded massively in a year or two. Add more cheap shares while you still can.

Hopefully we get more than a 37% premium to current pps

I would be VERY surprised if Dan is not already screening potential partner candidates. My guess is they're probably in the picking the right deal phase currently.

There should be multiple suitors for Springpole and picking the best fit is very important. If we can structure a deal like the Osisko/Goldfields deal I think that would be acceptable to our Management. That is only for Springpole, we keep Duparquet for ourselves and shouldn't be part of what they do at Springpole. We'll see what they figure out, but IMO Keith will put us in a good place moving forward.

This is a Seller's market now with the gold price @$2600 and going higher.

Acquisition Season has started in a big way.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/northern-star-buy-grey-deal-213612676.html

Yes! I was just going to post this as well. The fact that they received this so quickly just shows the work they have put in and also gives you an idea of how much the government wants this approved. The EA approval is in the bank guys, I'm telling you. Now the exciting phase will begin where they get to screen the best deal for us to partner up.

Additionally, we also will get the new resource base from Duparquet I guess during Q1-Q2 2025.

I can almost smell the money already.