First Mining Gold Corporation (QX) (FFMGF) News

I want to address another issue Dan talked about in this last webinar. I don't think it was discussed here.

That being the issue of the progress of the Springpole EA in 2025. Dan discussed it in some length in the webinar and IMO he may have said something that could tell us when we might have any potential deal closed with a JV partner. He talks about it in the part beginning around 13:30 of the webinar segment titled "Springpole EIA milestones and technical review".

https://firstmininggold.com/investors/media/

He said they expected to get questions back from the Feds in January and when those questions are given the clock stops on the process until FMG comes back with their answers, the clock would then start again. Here's where the rubber meets the road, so the speak. The questions submitted by the gov. will be made public and ANYONE, including our potential JV partners will be able to see what's happening behind the curtain. Dan, then went on to say that they expect that Q&A process to be over by the end of June. At that time, it has to get the final seal of approval by the Minister. IMO that will just be a formality, until the clock runs out in December.

So, what I take from Dan's EA timeline talk is this. MAYBE any potential JV partner will want to see all the questions the Feds have get answered BEFORE inking a deal with us. They want to be sure there are no landmines from the Feds holding up Springpole and at the point in time when all the questions are deemed answered the Feds give approval. Dan told me in the past that FMG expected to have a partnership with someone BEFORE the gov. gave the final EA approval, so this may be what he's talking about. Just my guess anyway.

Such a scenario would IMO open the door for a JV deal getting done sometime after June 2025, when any final questions from the Feds are completed. How Cat Lake and the FN folks play into the grand scheme I don't know, but we know the gov. approval is most important.

I'm sure we'll all be shocked at what's uncovered by the DOGE team in the days ahead. This is corruption and bureaucracy at the highest levels. IMO there's a large percentage of government employees THAT DON'T EVEN WORK. We know many don't even go into work and just stay at home.

We always hear the Banksters at the Fed talking about the wealth gap/inequality in this country, well they caused it. It's going to be interesting to see the Deep State push back from the reforms that Trump's administration tries to implement, my guess is they won't affect that much change in the end. The corruption is too embedded.

I hope I'm wrong with that prediction.

Yep. Well, instead of Elon they could pay us. I have no doubt we would find BILLIONS of bloat and improper payments. I'm just saying....Musker and Ramasalami are in a target-rich environment. Federal employee hiring freeze and pay freeze. Anyone who is in charge of DEI and/or Workforce Engagement should be cut. Those positions are typically upper management with salaries of 200k to 250k. I believe HHS alone has hundreds of those positions.

Elon Musk is going right into the belly of the SWAMP beast. Check this article out.
Elon is stirring up a hornet's nest now. LOL I pray he does some good.

What these Jackasses are being paid is absurd.


https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/elon-musk-fed-absurdly-overstaffed

Yes, I noticed the same thing about her speaking to assets down in South America. She talked a lot about Peru and copper deposits, but the theme is the same for ALL mining property assets. Buy them cheap and have good management that knows how to develop them. That would be Keith in a nutshell.

We see the geopolitical issues have cropped up and IMO will continue going forward. That will be a major driver for a higher gold price, along with inflation and rising deficits.

Yeah, if we gave them a 50% stake in Springpole.that might work best for both of us. Their balance sheet looks pretty good, and they should be able to make something like that work.

As You said they have an operation at Great Bear Ontario (Red Lake) and that's not too far away. Acquiring half of Springpole with the option to buy out the balance later on would seem to me to be attractive for them. We'll see.

https://www.kinross.com/operations/default.aspx#canada

Their numbers look good now, $3,000 gold wouldn't hurt. If Trump and everyone else print like we expect we'll see that.

Maybe Barrick can buy Springpole. Lol. After listening to her I can say she and the folks she partnered up with timed their acquisitions well. Just like Keith did. One big difference was a lot of their work took place in South America...much more risk than Canada. Glad FF is in Canada and part of it goes back to the beginning where she talked about not only getting the metals cycle right, but the geopolitical cycle as well. It is looking like the geopolitical cycle is turning in our favor as Justin falls out of favor.

From Kinross Q3 Report:
They still have some debt, but they do have some liquidity.  They sold the production mine in Russia.  Would Kinross be able to build Great Bear and Springpole at the same time?  If they bought into Springpole at 50% they might be able to stagger both projects.   Plus, it would make sense for a company to buy into Springpole to maybe be first in line to bid on Duparquet later. 

 In 2 or 3 quarters Kinross could caseflow a 50%  investment into Springpole. 


Balance sheet The Company continued to strengthen its balance sheet by repaying $350.0 million on its term loan in the quarter and an additional $100.0 million following the quarter. As of November 5, 2024, $650.0 million has been repaid on the $1.0 billion term loan in 2024. Kinross had cash and cash equivalents of $472.8 million as of September 30, 2024, compared with $352.4 millionat December 31, 2023. The Company has additional available credit6 of $1.65 billion and total liquidity7 of approximately $2.1 billion. On October 28, 2024, the Company amended its $1,500.0 million revolving credit facility to extend the maturity by two years to October 2029, restoring a five-year term.

I've never heard of her either, but in the interview, she made some good observations about what mining companies have to do to be profitable and move their mining assets forward. The first being to buy the properties at the right price (cheap) and secondly to have good management. We have both of those present with FMG.

I see she is affiliated with Kinross Gold. This last time I spoke with Paul H. he made mention of Kinross. I have no idea why he brought them up, but we were discussing potential partners for us and he brought up Barrick and somebody else, but lastly mentioned Kinross. I remember thinking to myself why did he mention Kinross? It seemed sort of strange that he brought them up, after mentioning the other companies. It made me think maybe we could be in some sort of talks with them. Speculation on my part.

I apologize if anyone has already posted something about Barrick and the Mali government conflict.   

Dan replied to a post on LinkedIn about this mess.  His post pointed out that Canada is one of the best gold mining jurisdictions in the world where First Mining has 2 great projects. 

https://www.barrick.com/English/news/news-details/2024/barrick-update-on-mali-operations/default.aspx


Just another reminder that gold in the ground is great.  Location is a big deal as well.

Interesting video.I've never heard of catherine mcleod-seltzer before and yet she is on the Kinross BOD.

Let me throw this out there one more time.
The price drop in gold in early November increased heavy buying.  


https://kingworldnews.com/massive-comex-deliveries-have-taken-place-since-thanksgiving/

Yes, I find it more than coincidental that Dan keeps talking about the Osisko/Goldfields deal AND that even in this last interview he just happens to mention how much money the deal was for.

Is Osisko's Windfall property comparable to Springpole? I think Windfall may have been a better asset, but Dan does keep comparing the two. The important fact is that if they can do a deal that's structured like that deal, we should be in good shape going forward. We'll see what happens.

I do remember him talking about the Osisko deal several times now, so you're probably right that that deal is one of their preferred means of structuring their own deal in the future.

I also noted Dan spent quite a bit of time discussing it in this most recent video and has also spent quite a bit of time discussing it in past videos, so you're on to something there.

I just watched this interview with this Lady whose family has been in the mining business for many years. A lot of her interview talks about the mining industry in general, but she makes several comments on WHY companies like FMG are home-run plays.

She talks about buying assets at the low-end of the cycle (which Keith has done) price-wise, and riding them up as the prices move higher. Of course, we've seen gold do that in 2024. The gold move up is still not reflected in the price of the gold in the ground, but that's coming.



Looks like the link is not opening for some reason. If You want to watch it go to miningstockeducation.com channel on YouTube
The lady doing the interview is Catherine Macleod-Seltzer.

I just watched this interview with this Lady whose family has been in the mining business for many years. A lot of her interview talks about the mining industry in general, but she makes several comments on WHY companies like FMG are home-run plays.

She talks about buying assets at the low-end of the cycle (which Keith has done) price-wise, and riding them up as the prices move higher. Of course, we've seen gold do that in 2024. The gold move up is still not reflected in the price of the gold in the ground, but that's coming.

I just watched this interview with this Lady whose family has been in the mining business for many years. A lot of her interview talks about the mining industry in general, but she makes several comments on WHY companies like FMG are home-run plays.

She talks about buying assets at the low-end of the cycle (which Keith has done) price-wise, and riding them up as the prices move higher. Of course, we've seen gold do that in 2024. The gold move up is still not reflected in the price of the gold in the ground, but that's coming.

I just watched this interview with this Lady whose family has been in the mining business for many years. A lot of her interview talks about the mining industry in general, but she makes several comments on WHY companies like FMG are home-run plays.

She talks about buying assets at the low-end of the cycle (which Keith has done) price-wise, and riding them up as the prices move higher. Of course, we've seen gold do that in 2024. The gold move up is still not reflected in the price of the gold in the ground, but that's coming.

Read this article today.  

https://kingworldnews.com/massive-comex-deliveries-have-taken-place-since-thanksgiving/

You may love a 12X gain from these current depressed levels, but that's NOT what I want to see. I don't think Keith wants to sell the Company out for that either. I think they're looking for longer term gains and bigger moves in our share price when the sector comes back into favor.

I won't entertain selling any of my shares short of $2 U.S., I've been holding shares here for 8+ years now and I'm looking for a significant pay off.

Doing some sort of variation of the Osisko deal with someone, IMO would be a good move for the Company's long-term financial standing and viability going forward. That means partnering with someone at just Springpole and not Duparquet. Hold on to Duparquet for future share appreciation. My guess is that may be what they're trying to do now.

Osisko went for 4.90 a share, we are trading at 0.12 currently, say we sold at 1.50 a share worst ways I think we would love a 12x 😀

O.K., here's what I was talking about. Go to about 26:00 into the interview. The part listed "market comparable and M&A interests" and Dan starts talking about other comparable mines to us. He talks about a couple, but he begins with the Osisko/Goldfields deal.

He said Goldfields contributed $600M in the first part of the deal and later bought the balance for $2.2 BILLION. Without knowing the specs of Windfall I can't say how that asset stacks up against Springpole, but Dan wants to keep talking about it so I'm thinking that's the way they're leaning.

https://firstmininggold.com/investors/media/

That's totally unacceptable for what we have and how long shareholders have waited for our pay-off.

Dan, yet again, in yesterday's webinar mentioned the Osisko/Goldfields deal. He's talked about that deal in EVERY interview he's done since Goldfields bought the balance of Osisko's portion. IMO this is more than coincidence.

I'll say this one more time. I believe that deal is the template our Management are looking to partner with someone at Springpole. I'm guess it would be Springpole because Dan also said Springpole was the asset for us to partner with someone.

I'll go back and listen to that part again, but I think he said Osisko got $500M up front and Goldfields got half the asset in the first part of the transaction. The balance of the asset (I think it was called Windfall) was the most recent part of the deal when Goldfields bought it. That's when Dan started talking about it. That's why I think that's the way they're wanting to deal Springpole.

IMO we'll all be very pleasantly surprised at how high the share price goes once we get financial freedom (first) and then (second) the mining sector turns around. The Street will recognize what we have once the sector turns up.

I also remember him talking about how some companies have been acquired for a 25% to 50% premium over their share price and that is not acceptable for FF. I hope it isn't.....like you, I see at least a $1 or $2 share price in our future if not higher.

I was able to hear the replay from LinkedIn Post.

Is the Q&A available on replay?
Thanks

IMO they've most likely turned down some offers that have already been made. That's fine. We're all for getting the best deal possible for Shareholders, but we have two separate issues going on here.

1. The overall mining sector turning around. I don't see that happening in 2025, that's going to happen after a big market correction happens and money rotates into the mining sector. That event is going to take some time, the gold price is going to have to reverse and move much higher from here. It could happen in 2026.

2. Management gets the right deal/offer done and we become financially self-sufficient. IMO if thiis comes about before the move in the mining sector comes it may not move our shares in a big way, but it will set us up for a big move later on. The question to be answered is can we do a deal BEFORE the sector turns? If they want to partner with someone at Springpole, all potential partners may still want to see the final EA approval get across the finish line and some agreements done with FN. Dan and Paul told me on several occasions a deal most likely would happen before the final EA is given, but who knows.

I think for 2025 getting that deal done is most important for the perception of this Company going forward, especially with the share price down at these depressed levels. The big gains in our share price will come when the mining sentiment turns around.

Dan was pictured Infront of the Agnico stall at a recent conference lately and posted it on X. That's not a coincidence.

I think the important thing Dan said here which people should take note of is that they have had interest from companies regarding Springpole. They have signed NDAs with different interest groups over the last few years or so which means Springpole definitely is on the radar for many potential partners. But Dan also said very specifically that they won't make a deal unless they feel it's in the very best interest of the shareholders as a whole. This is what I have been saying for a long time: That most likely we have received offers to partner up on Springpole (and maybe Duparquet) but Keith & Dan have felt the deal is not good enough for us. No long term shareholder in FFMG wants to see the company being bought out for 50 cents after such a long wait. I would absolutely hate it if this was the outcome after being a shareholder for 8 years and counting. Keith definitely does not want this either and I feel he is the one saying "no" to a lot of things in the background. This is also why I have full confidence and trust in both Keith & Dan to get the best deal for us. They think like business owners, not as speculators trying to make a quick buck by flipping the company's assets for a few pennies.

Most likely we are going to have to wait for the sentiment in the mining sector to turn around significantly before anything meaningful happens with the share price. Right now we are still in the waiting game, there is nothing Dan, Keith or anyone else can do about it really. They just need to stick to the plan and keep advancing the assets so that when the sentiment eventually turns around we are in the best possible position to monetize our fantastic portfolio. Like I said, we already know for a fact that there are people interested in this assets due to the signing of the NDAs. Nobody does that unless they are interested in making a full assessment about the project since you can get most of the important information for free anyways.

What I want to see next year is that we get that updated resource base at Duparquet up to 8-10m ounces. I don't think investors fully appreciate how big of an asset this will become. The irony here is that while FFMG is focused on getting Springpole permitted I think what might end up happening is Duparquet stealing the whole show. Having a permitted Springpole and Duparquet at 10m ounces drilled is just an insane setup to have when the sector eventually turns bullish again.

They must like Keith; they own some FM too.

FMG shares are so cheap they can load up for very little investment cash.

Yes, there was no doubt Dan attempted to dance around the question on whether we had enough money to get through 2025. IMO the answer to that is clearly NO.

I predict they have to raise more cash (if a deal doesn't get done) before mid-year. Dan obviously was less than forth coming on a timeline for it. My hope is that a deal can get done before we have to raise more cash, but I'm not banking on that happening.

His answer to my share price question was that it concerned him there would hostile offers coming in to buy us out and that a bidding war would likely ensue for the Company. Yeah, that very well could happen, so Dan without giving away too many secrets, what are You going to do about it? This has been talked about before when our shares were a lot higher than they currently are. IMO Keith and Dan think that most of the shares held in FMG are in strong hands that aren't going to sell on the cheap. I would agree with that premise, as many of us have held our shares for what seems FOREVER and won't sell for just a 5-10X gain. I'm looking for a 20-30X gain from where we are now, so I'm not voting to sell for anything under $2 a share U.S.

Dan made the comment yesterday they think the Company is worth $5 a share Canadian right now. I'm not sure how he can make that claim when our shares are trading at the current level they are, Sounds a little too optimistic to me, but that's what he's getting paid to tell everyone I suppose.

The video I posted was saying that if the U.S. sold all its gold and went into Bitcoin it would screw China, Russia, and I suppose everyone else that holds gold as their main reserve asset. I would beg to differ. IMO it would screw the U.S.

You want to hold PM's for the stability they provide and as You said Bitcoin ain't stable. It's all over the place. Bitcoin only follows an up market, it tanks in bad markets. Look at what it done this week. All the reasons You gave are valid as why NOT to hold it, but what concerns me is Trump is listening to people like Musk and others that have his ear now. What are they telling him?

I believe our leaders know the jig is up soon for the dollar with all the debt and over-the-top money creation that's gone on. The article I posted with Peter Schiff saying we spent $624 billion in the first two months of fiscal 2025 is a good example. The spending is accelerating and when the SHTF moment comes they'll have to try and spin something.

I see Bitcoin as a potential huge black swan in the making and in time it will be unmasked. JMO

Kind of interesting. SILJ owns almost 13 millions shares of FF.
https://amplifyetfs.com/silj-holdings/

I think I read 3 or 4 questions from you. Your question (and mine) of whether we had enough in the bank to sustain operations through 2025 was sort of danced around and mixed in with a question the moderator posed that had three or four other issues intertwined.

I laughed when they were addressing, or should I say, attempting to address your question about share price. A lot of the webinars are reruns of old issues with the same old language. I know they are helpful for newer investors, but at times it gets boring for me. Bad attitude, I know, I should be fired up about what happens and what is discussed.

I think Polissis had a good point a few posts ago about a stream or royalty agreement on Duparquet.

Good points. I have been thinking for a while Agnico would be the one, but honestly some other players have enough money. Depends on the offer I guess.

Have you heard anything recently about potential remediation costs at Duparquet? That issue has not been discussed in some time.

Thanks for posting that. I think such an ill-advised decision would be viewed historically as highly as Gordon Brown's decision to dispose of half of the UK's gold at almost the bottom of the gold market.

Just off the top of my head I can think of a few problems with this:
1. China could acquire a substantial amount, run it up and then dump it and buy gold with the excess funds.
2. An intelligence agency devises a way to corrupt the ledger (assuming they did not introduce it in the first place).
3. Crypto is WAY to volatile. Gold is much more stable and has held value for thousands of years. How many cryptos have come to market and disappeared?
4. Is bitcoin mania the new Dutch tulip bulb mania of old?
4. Quantum computing advances to the point where it can hack any crypto.
5. Crypto WAY too vulnerable to EMP or other electromagnetic damage (solar flare, etc.)

I know why he would want to do it - you could capitalize on the rising tide. But imagine what a national security risk it could be if we divest all of our gold and then bitcoin goes south or disappears? We would be hosed. Our enemies could then acquire gold and set up their trading systems around it and where would we be? Out in the cold. I just hope it is more hot air from him. If we do it, back it with gold, so I can exchange it for physical, just like I do with the phony FRNs I have in my wallet.

I think crypto represents a great momentum trade, but I am not going into it as a long-term investment.

Anybody else see this? I wouldn't put it past Trump to try and pull something stupid like this. Hopefully he has advisors that would steer him away from it.
Watch the short video.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-12-19/what-will-happen-gold-when-us-replaces-it-bitcoin

Yeah, that certainly could be enough to at least matter. I'd forgotten about doing something like that.

This may all boil down to how hot someone else is to get in bed with us. I get the feeling that they have already
turned down several deals already. Keith isn't going to take any plug nickels because he knows what he has.

I believe Dan made the point on the webinar people were paying anywhere from $75 to $250 for gold in the ground on these projects. I want to see something closer to the $250 number before selling, if that's realistic. Gold may have to break above $3K for that to happen.

I’m by no means an expert in these deals but First Majestic bought the silver stream at Springpole for 22.5 million. 5 million of which is still owed pending FF receiving an approved EA. I don’t know how much silver is at Duparque but let’s assume it’s in the same neighborhood. I think selling the royalties which would be separate from streaming would also bring in a very substantial amount. Treasury sold the royalties on Goliath for $20 million and Duparque is much bigger than Goliath.

There’s potentially 50-70 million in those two transactions. Again, I don’t know what silver is in the ground so I could be off wildly here.

I’m by no means an expert in these deals but First Majestic bought the silver stream at Springpole for 22.5 million. 5 million of which is still owed pending FF receiving an approved EA. I don’t know how much silver is at Duparque but let’s assume it’s in the same neighborhood. I think selling the royalties which would be separate from streaming would also bring in a very substantial amount. Treasury sold the royalties on Goliath for $20 million and Duparque is much bigger than Goliath.

There’s potentially 50-70 million in those two transactions. Again, I don’t know what silver is in the ground so I could be off wildly here.

Did You hear Dan's answer on my question about the depressed share price. LOL

O.K., that's a thought. What kind of revenue could that create, without giving the farm away?

I think I would still rather see them do a deal before they have to make that move.

I think our most valuable asset to deal on would be a streaming or royalty agreement of Duparque.

Well, anything's possible, but Dan keeps talking about partnering with SOMEONE at Springpole and never mentions Duparquet.

Of course, that doesn't mean Duparquet isn't on the table either. It just makes a lot more sense to me for them to partner on one of those properties and hold the other one for ourselves. That's certainly doable after we do a partnership deal.

The Moderator asked Dan only half of my question on if we had enough cash for 2025. The other half of the question was about more share dilution from doing more offerings. He didn't ask Dan about more share dilution and Dan didn't speak to more share dilution directly. That's most likely because there will be more dilution coming. I hope not.

Dan did come back with the same response he's been using for a while now. That being that they would sell off some of our in-house assets. So, I would ask this question, what assets are we holding that are worth very much? Most of the deals Dan did was for shares in the companies of our partners. Those shares are worth next to nothing currently. It would be stupid to sell any of those IMO.

The only assets we have left are Pickle Crow AND Cameron. I agree with You, that selling PC or Cameron is not what I would want to see, but what else is there? As usual, Dan's not specific about what he's telling us.

Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

I would actually take it a step further and say that I would be surprised if anyone but Agnico were to put a deal together on Duparquet. They basically own the Abitibi region. It’s their home turf. I’m sure they would love to pick up a project that is between 5 and 10 million ounces. But as importantly, they would want to make sure that competitors don’t gain a significant foothold in their backyard. This project is so massive and capital intensive that there are probably only 20 mining companies in the world that could feasibly manage the finances required to buy an interest (JV) and then finance the cost of development. Agnico doesn’t want other majors of the world that don’t currently have a presence there moving into their domain in a big way. I don’t think this project is far enough along to warrant any particular urgency at the moment but when that time comes, my money is on Agnico as the outright buyer or JV partner.

I would actually take it a step further and say that I would be surprised if anyone but Agnico were to put a deal together on Duparquet. They basically own the Abitibi region. It’s their home turf. I’m sure they would love to pick up a project that is between 5 and 10 million ounces. But as importantly, they would want to make sure that competitors don’t gain a significant foothold in their backyard. This project is so massive and capital intensive that there are probably only 20 mining companies in the world that could feasibly manage the finances required to buy an interest (JV) and then finance the cost of development. Agnico doesn’t want other majors of the world that don’t currently have a presence there moving into their domain in a big way. I don’t think this project is far enough along to warrant any particular urgency at the moment but when that time comes, my money is on Agnico as the outright buyer or JV partner.

I would not count out Agnico. I have watched and at times owned them and they generate a lot of free cash flow.

I asked 2 questions - Do we have enough funds in the bank to sustain current operations through 2025 and the other was has Firefly Metals stopped drilling at Pickle Crow. I saw Implanting also asked a question about Pickle Crow. I would not be a fan of selling off our interest in Pickle Crow because it is worth so much more than what we would be offered right now.

First of all, Dan's only been with the Company since 2019, so he's not been there 10 years to get this off the ground. I've spoken with Dan a couple of times since he's come onboard and my conversations with him were good. He was pleasant and said a lot of things I wanted to hear.

Does that make what he said true or exactly right? Absolutely not, he's playing a game, just like anyone in his position HAS to. I watch all these webinars they've done over the last few years and some things Dan's said have not been correct. One that comes to mind is the share dilution thing. He said that was going to stop years ago and obviously it hasn't. It's accelerated.

My money is on Keith, not Dan. I believe that's the case with most investors here.

I think they'll get a JV with someone. The question is WHEN and for HOW MUCH. I'm hoping for sooner than later.
Maybe this is taking this long because they're asking for a higher price and that's good.