What are the latest updates at Duparquet and Springpole?

At Springpole, we are significantly through the Environmental Assessment (EA) process and 80% through a feasibility study. We are contributing to the fundamental science and understanding of our environment, which is demonstrative of our progress there. We are looking to submit a final EA report in mid-2024, with approval in mid-2025. Overall, we are looking at being in production and pouring gold in 2028.

2023 is a very exciting year at Duparquet. We started to do the baseline environmental work. There is a historic mining legacy there, which we recognize we need to advance. The regulators are convinced that the only way we can get through a clean-up that is required for a project of the scale of Duparquet is through the development of a new project. There is an alignment of interests, with 4 million t of historic tailings on the side, some of which are on our property. We are working hard with the municipality to discuss the bigger picture, which will manifest itself in a PEA that should be done by September 2023. This will frame one vision, a starting point, and a discussion around how to advance the project.

What was the decision-making process behind the acquisition of Porcupine East?

We picked up Porcupine East from IAMGOLD as the property ties the entire Duparquet district together. It follows the major controlling structures and almost doubles the exposure of the fault itself. And relative to the drilling density of the deposit at Duparquet, there has been little exploration done there, so we think that will unlock an exciting phase of exploration. What we are most excited about is the drilling done at satellites around Duparquet, which will allow us to follow the known mineralization and lead to a low-risk high-return exploration opportunity.

Can you touch upon your ESG initiatives?

We are working on understanding the environment and building our social license to develop projects. We take this very seriously and have made significant strides in indigenous employment; in our camps, close to 80% of our staff is indigenous. Our team now consists of more than 30% women, right up to the C-suite and several of our senior exploration and geology team. We continue to source from local businesses and have gone from a spend of about C$500,000 in 2020 to C$3.5 million spent with local businesses in 2022. We have a huge socio-economic impact.

Are you leveraging any exciting technologies at your properties?

We spend a lot of time looking at autonomous vehicles at Springpole, particularly how we can reduce diesel usage. Moving from filtered tails to thickened tails reduces by 20% the number of trucks we use. I continue to challenge our team on a weekly basis to figure out the best practices, and some of it is driven by economics; high oil prices have a huge impact on an open pit mine, and sometimes it is more efficient to use electricity.

Where do you see gold headed?

Central banks are buying more gold than they have ever done at any point in history. We are sitting today at a short distance from US$2,000 gold/oz, but no one cares about the commodity. I take comfort in the fact that gold has not been crushed by rising interest rates. When they go down, gold will not follow. Everyone has been waiting for this pivot. We are in stagflation right now, and gold should perform the best. Fast forward a year, rates will have come down, governments will not have conquered inflation, lowering rates will add to economic growth, and at that point, people will recognize that we cannot get where we need to get to without a real expansionary economic policy. I think we are going there, and taking those hard constraints, gold will do very well over the long term, and in the next two years, will do extremely well.

Why is First Mining going to be a great story for investors near term?

We have two of the biggest undeveloped projects in two tier-1 jurisdictions, with Springpole being one of the most advanced. When the moment of recognition comes two years down with the final EAs, we have the potential for multiple returns.