Latest / SILVER / GOLD / $UFD Meme Coin Investing & Global Economics / **Gold and Silver Investors** MUST Hear Developments - (Precious Metals Update w/ First Mining Gold)

Transcript

**Gold and Silver Investors** MUST Hear Developments - (Precious Metals Update w/ First Mining Gold) · SILVER / GOLD / $UFD Meme Coin Investing & Global Economics

0:00
Today we're joined by Dan Wilton.
0:02
He's the CEO of First Mining Gold.
0:05
We're going to talk about his outlook on what's happening
0:08
right now in the precious metal sector, the gold price, the
0:12
silver price. He's going to give us a read on
0:15
what he sees in terms of sentiment in the overall sector
0:18
as well. And of course, we're going to
0:20
talk about big exciting developments, big future
0:24
potential catalyst with his company First Mining gold.
0:27
Dan, welcome to the basement. Ron, a pleasure to be in the
0:30
basement, as it always is. Yeah, well, you know, we, we
0:35
were, we were fortunate to have you here in person a few years
0:38
ago. And the basement will never be
0:41
the same but. You can mean that in a positive.
0:44
Way in a great way, yeah, absolutely one one of the one of
0:47
the biggest honors. And I have to throw in, you
0:50
know, some of my very first YouTube videos that I ever
0:53
created were about first mining gold.
0:55
So I followed you and followed the company for a long time.
0:59
I know you are very smart, very insightful and are working
1:04
everyday in the precious metal sector.
1:06
What do you think about what's going on with the price of gold
1:09
and silver right now? Well, you know, let's look at it
1:13
in the context of global geopolitics and instability,
1:17
right? Like, I think we're living in
1:20
pretty unprecedented times here. I think pretty frightening
1:24
times. You know, we're starting to see
1:28
oil reacts to what I think is going to be, you know, talking
1:33
today about maybe the most severe oil shock ever from
1:37
disruption of the physical oil market.
1:40
You know, pretty frightening stuff.
1:41
What that's going to have for follow on implications on
1:45
inflation I think is still to be seen.
1:47
That's obviously going to be lagging, but gold usually picks
1:50
up those signals pretty clearly and pretty early.
1:54
So I think right now we haven't seen a massive flight to safety
2:02
in gold in large part because I think we've seen some of that
2:06
flight to the US dollar that's kind of mitigated what has been
2:10
kind of, you know, what would otherwise I think in an
2:14
instability period like this be a big rise in the gold price.
2:18
But I think it's absolutely coming like I really do.
2:21
I think the fact that, you know, and I've been saying this to
2:25
people for a long time, the only, the only caveat I'd say is
2:29
that the situation in the world's gotten worse than when I
2:31
started saying this, you know, a month ago was that like, even
2:36
if, you know, God willing, we can have a great outbreak of
2:39
peace all over the world. And I really hope that we do.
2:45
We're not having an outbreak of trust anytime soon, right?
2:48
Like we are in a period of really unprecedented disruption.
2:54
Everything that has got the gold price to where it is is the same
2:57
or worse. And so that to me says they got
3:01
to expect that if we'd kind of thought in this cycle, absent
3:05
external factors, you know, did gold go?
3:09
We always talk about kind of, you know, six to seven times
3:12
through to peak. So let's say that through is
3:14
1000 ish dollars, but that's before you start talking about
3:18
the real global instability and that change in kind of the US
3:24
dollar as kind of the global reserve currency and the role I
3:28
think that gold is really starting to play in that
3:31
respect. Yeah, yeah.
3:32
And as we know, I think just recently, the amount of gold
3:36
held by world central banks has surpassed the amount of U.S.
3:41
Treasuries. And when, when countries, when
3:44
people, countries whoever don't trust each other, they're going
3:47
to go to what they can trust. And gold and silver have proven
3:51
themselves for thousands of years being being trustworthy.
3:56
One more question on that point and then I want to get your
3:58
opinion on this. I often say that high inflation
4:03
and the devaluation of the dollar are really the same
4:07
thing, right? Like two sides to the same coin
4:09
over the long run. I know that and you alluded to
4:13
this, right, There can be short term noise, like right now the
4:16
dollar index is going up because of everything going on.
4:19
But over the long haul, high inflation is good for precious
4:24
metals. Is that an accurate statement?
4:26
Yeah, I think that's true. I think high inflation reflects
4:29
itself ultimately in the devaluation of Fiat currencies,
4:32
right. It's, it is basically the, the
4:36
day-to-day, week to week, month to month expression of the
4:40
decrease in the purchasing power of a currency.
4:43
And the one currency who's purchasing power doesn't, you
4:46
know, really decrease fundamentally on its own
4:50
generally is gold. It's just in relation to other
4:52
currencies. And you, you can't see that same
4:56
kind of inflation impact in gold.
4:58
You can't just print more gold. But the one thing I'll promise
5:02
you is they're about to print a lot more money.
5:05
So you know, it's and on top of that, you start looking at, you
5:11
know, what I think were real, genuine concerns about real
5:15
fiscal pressures in the US and around the world.
5:19
I don't think there's a government anywhere that's
5:21
actually, you know, doing a decent job of running a balanced
5:25
budget. Maybe there's maybe there's some
5:27
that I'm not tracking. But, you know, work your way
5:29
through the G7. It's all pretty disastrous.
5:33
There seems to have been a total collapse of, you know, fiscal
5:37
conservatism in the world. And we're getting pretty close
5:42
to what I think is a tipping point on that respect, right?
5:45
Like at some point, the only way out of a debt situation is going
5:50
to be devaluation of the currency, which is, you know,
5:54
another word for expropriating the wealth of, of, of society.
5:59
So yeah, it's everything is getting worse before it gets
6:05
better. And I think you're going to see
6:06
that reflected in the gold and the silver price.
6:08
Yeah, the the, the outlook for gold and silver remain very
6:11
optimistic. What about investor sentiment?
6:16
I know you travel the world, you're the CEO of a gold
6:19
development stage company. You're talking to investors,
6:22
you're talking to small investors, but you're also
6:25
talking to very large investors. And like I said throughout the
6:28
entire world, I know five years ago when you and I first met,
6:33
sentiment in the precious metal sector was fairly low, I think
6:39
is the Safeway to describe it on the basement floor we used to
6:42
go. Around and say yeah.
6:44
Where, where are we now? As you're traveling, as you're
6:48
kind of getting a feel for what's going on out there, Are
6:51
you seeing some renewed interest in the precious metals sector?
6:55
Yeah, we are. And we're seeing it more more
6:59
broadly based than I think we've seen in a long, long time.
7:04
You know, it's interesting, Ron, for all we've seen the rise in
7:08
the gold price, pretty phenomenal rise in the gold
7:11
price in the last couple of years until very recently.
7:16
When you look at gold equities and particularly we always kind
7:19
of track the GDXJ as kind of the junior miners, gold indexes,
7:24
it's mostly producers, but it's kind of a closer sizable index
7:27
to us. That index has been having
7:30
outflows consistent like really until the last month or two,
7:35
which is to say the investors in gold equities really didn't
7:41
believe it and so they were continuing to take liquidity all
7:45
the way up. So yeah, then the net assets in
7:47
that in those funds has increased with the gold with the
7:50
share prices of the companies. But the net flows of of of you
7:55
know, dollars into those funds has been an outflow until
8:00
recently. So we haven't really seen a
8:02
broad based push to, you know, call it the Main St. investor or
8:08
Wall Street for that matter, even really coming into precious
8:12
metal equities. That's starting now.
8:14
It's starting to be part of the the conversation.
8:17
It's still very, very underweight, like across pretty
8:20
much any index because everyone has still been focused on what's
8:25
going on with the AI narrative, what's going on with, you know,
8:29
large cap tech. And people have made so much
8:31
money in those sectors, although they're starting to see, you
8:35
know, I think what are some pretty frothy valuations.
8:38
And so you're looking at the gold sector now, which is
8:42
generating unprecedented levels of free cash flow.
8:45
Like you watch, watch free cash flow from gold producers quarter
8:49
on quarter, like from Q4 to Q1 or Q3 to Q4, let's say the
8:57
average realized price has gone up by 4 or $500 and the free
9:02
cash flow was doubled. Well, what you're going to see
9:04
when they report the Q ones, you know, the average price of Q4
9:09
was still $4400, Ron. The average price of Q1 is going
9:14
to be, you know, whatever, but 5000 plus anyway, you know,
9:17
probably closer to 5200 depending on where we go in the
9:20
next few weeks. So again, you're, you're just
9:24
seeing this continued massive record cash flow.
9:28
Yeah. That's going to be impacted by
9:29
energy prices for sure. But you know, the gold price has
9:34
more than compensated for that over the last few years.
9:37
So the sector itself is in really healthy shape.
9:40
Balance sheets are in really healthy shape.
9:42
And so we're starting to see sort of value investor interest
9:47
in the sector, not just kind of momentum where we've seen a
9:50
little bit of interest, but we're starting to see real value
9:53
interest in the sector, which is interesting.
9:56
Yeah, Yeah. So it feels like to me from my
9:58
perspective, and I think you, you corroborated this, that
10:02
things have gotten better, but we still have a huge runway
10:06
ahead of us for even further. And I mean, the good news is
10:10
things have gotten better. The better news is things can
10:13
get way better from where they are.
10:15
And and we started at such a kind of depressed level, which
10:20
was no fun. But the good news out of that is
10:23
it just gives such a great opportunity for for gold mining
10:27
companies, the big companies, but in particular I think the
10:31
development stage companies. And that's right where you fit
10:35
in where I think there's incredible not only value
10:39
opportunity right now, but opportunity for growth.
10:43
Would you let's let's shift, shift our focus now on to 1st
10:46
mining gold. Can you give our viewer who, who
10:49
may be new to the company, just like a, a brief overview of who
10:52
the company is? And then we'll talk about your
10:55
two big projects that you have going.
10:57
On Yeah, sure. So First Mining is a project
11:00
development company set up by Keith Neumeyer, the founder and
11:05
CEO of First Majestic Silver in 2015 to basically acquire and
11:12
develop large gold projects in Canada.
11:14
So we have two of the largest undeveloped gold projects in
11:17
Canada and we think one of the next ones to get environmental
11:20
assessment approval. That's our spring pull project
11:23
in Ontario and then our larger Dupart K Gold project in Quebec.
11:29
Wow, wow. And let's talk about Spring pull
11:32
first, because I know there's been some big developments going
11:36
on there, potential for some very exciting catalyst during
11:41
2026. What's the latest with Spring
11:44
Poll, Dan? Well, we continue to move
11:47
through the environmental assessment process.
11:50
Impact Assessment Agency of Canada published their draft
11:53
impact assessment reports a couple of weeks ago.
11:59
You know, I think it's, it's a thorough and interesting read if
12:04
anyone wants to dig into it. But I think it shows a, a pretty
12:09
clear direction that reflects all of the work that the company
12:13
has done and a lot of the work that we've done, you know, with
12:16
communities over the course of the last number of years.
12:19
So yeah, that's I think gearing up for what looks like an
12:25
environmental assessment decision in Q2, which will be a
12:29
major, major catalyst for this company.
12:32
I mean really well, it's this has been an 8 year process that
12:35
we've been in and you know the reality is there aren't many
12:40
projects that have gone through all of the work that we have to
12:45
get this far in that process. So I think it puts spring pull
12:48
up in a very different lens in terms of that sort of strategic
12:55
importance to the industry, let's just say.
12:57
So you know, one of the things that that you know, talk about
13:01
other sentiments that we're starting to see in the mining
13:03
industry from the kind of producer side, we're seeing very
13:08
clearly. You know, these companies are
13:10
generating record levels of free cash flow, they're ramping up
13:14
exploration programs to try and build the resource base.
13:19
But the reality is those programs take 5 to 10 years to
13:24
really bear fruit generally. And you might find something
13:26
right beside your existing mind that's great.
13:29
But you know, for a new project development, like there's there
13:33
really are no shortcuts. So you know, when you have a
13:36
project like spring poll that's in the downturn, gone through
13:40
the hard yards here to do the work that you need to do to to
13:44
go through those environmental assessment processes and
13:47
hopefully come out the other side here, it really does kind
13:50
of set it up in a bit of a unique, unique path there going
13:54
forward. So you know, we're pretty
13:56
excited about that. I think that's going to be a
13:57
major catalyst for the share price.
14:00
Yeah. And you know, as you alluded to
14:02
earlier, there's it's not like there's a lot of trust in the
14:05
world right now. Countries are are at odds with
14:09
each other like no other time but in my lifetime.
14:12
So I think that jurisdiction is starting to become more and more
14:17
important. And I want to ask you in regard
14:21
to spring poll and this relates to Duparque as well.
14:24
There aren't that many big huge multi million ounce development
14:28
stage projects in good in good jurisdiction.
14:31
Is that a? Is that an accurate statement?
14:33
That's a very accurate statement.
14:35
And I think if you then sort of screen those projects for let's
14:39
say 5 million oz or more resource and because there is a
14:44
certain, you know, strategic importance to a large resource,
14:49
a company wants to develop a big resource.
14:51
They don't want to, you know, they don't want to build 5 small
14:53
mines, they'd rather have one big mine.
14:55
So those large resources, if you look in Canada in terms of the
15:00
number of large projects that could be in construction between
15:05
now and 2030, like it's a pretty short list.
15:09
You know, I think the longest it's 3 or 4 projects.
15:13
I think at most that would be potential to produce more than a
15:16
couple 100,000 oz a year. So yeah, it's, it's becoming
15:21
more and more rare. And I think you're exactly
15:23
right, Ron. You look around the world at
15:25
other jurisdictions, you know, you're starting to see some of
15:28
the big mining jurisdictions in West Africa introducing new
15:32
royalty regimes. You're starting, and you see
15:35
this in every cycle when the gold price runs and companies
15:39
are generating cash flow, you know, places that don't have a
15:42
reasonably stable rule of law and, and some that do end up
15:46
changing the, you know, changing the, the rules of engagement
15:50
around taxation or whatever. You know, some of them have
15:55
carried interest ownership. So, yeah, more than ever, I
15:59
think you've got Canada's a great place to be investing.
16:02
Ontario is a great place to be investing because you have a
16:06
province that has a, a real demonstrated desire to see
16:11
projects advance. And, and I would put Ontario's
16:14
track record against pretty much any other jurisdiction when you
16:18
look at the delivery of, you know, major environmental
16:21
assessments and delivery of major projects, because there's
16:24
not many other places that have built like 3 major gold mines in
16:29
Ontario in the last five years. Like it's, you know, it's been,
16:34
it's been very solid. So yeah, I think we've, you
16:38
know, we're, we're excited to move forward and kind of get to
16:40
that next stage. Still a lot of work to do.
16:43
We still have to get the project through a feasibility study.
16:47
You know, there's always project optimization that happens as you
16:50
move forward with projects like this, but the one thing from the
16:53
pre feasibility study that we put out shows that this is a big
16:57
and very robust project. So we're excited about that.
17:01
That's my, that's my last question for you are the
17:03
economics of the project. But I want to emphasize to the
17:06
viewer and you can correct me if I'm wrong, this is a huge
17:09
project. It's in Canada.
17:12
I, I think it's safe to say that a decade or more of work
17:16
overall, if you add it all up has gone into this project.
17:19
You kind of alluded to that earlier, right?
17:21
Like, oh, a big, a big gold mining company choose through
17:25
their pipeline every single day. And when they want to replace
17:28
those ounces, they can't just turn a switch and say what we're
17:32
going to go find more, more gold.
17:34
Like it takes a long time and 1st mining and maybe some
17:38
previous operators have invested a lot of time and a lot of money
17:43
into establishing that there are millions of Oz of gold in the
17:48
ground. And I think that's, in my
17:51
opinion, I'm speaking for myself here, becomes a very a valuable
17:55
asset for, for a company to hold.
17:57
But on top of that, I heard another analyst say that the,
18:01
the economics behind like the PEA at, at spring pole are
18:06
unparalleled. Like like there's really, you
18:09
know, great opportunity when this mine is built for, for it
18:14
to potentially generate like you talked about earlier, some
18:17
record amounts of cash. Yeah, that mean we put out an
18:21
updated pre feasibility study in November.
18:24
So you know, we that's published on on Cedar and on our website
18:28
so investors can find it there. This is, you know, this is a top
18:33
10 producing mine in Canada when it's produced as it scoped, you
18:36
know, in excess of 300,000 oz a year.
18:39
And there just aren't many of those.
18:40
First of all, to your point on timing, yes, you know, we and
18:44
our predecessor companies have been working on this project for
18:48
16 years. And yeah, when you when even
18:52
from when you find it to when it can produce gold, the average in
18:57
the mining industry is 18 years. And most mines get built with
19:04
when they when they start production, they get sized with
19:06
about a 10 year mine life, maybe 12, right.
19:09
So if you don't have line of sight on what your next
19:13
development pipeline is as a producer, the only way you're
19:16
going to fill in in size in the interim is to add another
19:20
project. And they haven't been doing that
19:24
in the last few years because they've been, you know, focused
19:27
on cash flow, returning cash to investors, which is important.
19:30
But at some point all of these companies are starting to see
19:34
resource decline, every single one of them unless they have
19:38
projects right in front of their face that they are building.
19:42
So a lot of now focus on the internal pipelines of these
19:45
companies. But you know, the reality is we
19:48
haven't, The reason we haven't seen a lot of projects being
19:51
acquired is 'cause there just aren't that many projects that
19:55
are, that are, you know, as far enough advanced that that a big
19:58
company would take them on. So it's an exciting time, you
20:02
know, for us, I think we've got not one, but two significant
20:06
assets in great jurisdictions. Still a lot of work to do, you
20:11
know, we still have to get through these, the EA process
20:15
and, you know, still continuing to work with the Indigenous
20:20
communities in the area who've done a ton of work on the
20:24
project and we really appreciate that.
20:27
But yeah, you know, like it's exciting times and this gold
20:31
price or we think, you know, as we started this gold price or
20:34
higher gold prices, this will be a very, very robust project.
20:38
Yeah, back, back. Just so the viewer knows, back
20:41
when Dan and I first met, the gold price was like $1200 an
20:44
ounce. So we've been through it all so.
20:47
5000 sounds a lot better. Ron 5000 sounds a lot better.
20:51
If if only we had known, right? So, so spring, spring pull,
20:55
massive project, unbelievable opportunity.
20:59
But there's more, right? There's the Du Parquet project,
21:02
which I want to emphasize to our viewer is a completely separate
21:06
project, also of course owned by First Money Gold.
21:10
But it in itself is also super exciting.
21:13
I saw some drill results that came out earlier in the week.
21:17
I visited the project myself back in I think it was October
21:21
of 2023. What's going on with Duparquet?
21:24
Because I think that I think that it offers, you know,
21:28
another great opportunity for investors to become interested
21:32
in first mining. No, absolutely.
21:34
And we see the the resource opportunity in Duparquet bigger
21:38
than spring Pool, right. When you see the drilling that
21:41
we are doing there, we are very clearly demonstrating that there
21:45
is more gold there than then the current resource statement
21:48
shows. Really you know, you know James
21:52
Maxwell and Caroline PNR and our team exploration team have done
21:58
an amazing job in really systematically understanding and
22:05
then going to drill and demonstrate some of the resource
22:08
growth potential there still inside kind of the same
22:10
footprint that we're looking at which is amazing.
22:13
You know, this is right now 5 million ounces of gold along A4
22:17
kilometer strike. So really important for us.
22:21
You know, we've been very focused on spring pool and the
22:24
EA for obvious reasons, but it's a really important year at
22:28
Duparque. We've kicked off environmental
22:31
baseline study work there and aim by the end of the year to
22:35
have all of the environmental data we need to put that into an
22:38
environmental assessment process in Quebec.
22:41
And at the same time, we've been working to manage and start
22:47
remediating some of the environmental legacy of the old
22:50
mine that's there, which is, which is really important in
22:53
large part for building, you know, building our relationship
22:56
and confidence with, with the community at Duparque.
23:00
We've had a great relationship with, but equally with the
23:05
Ministry of Environment because we're, you know, we're really
23:08
the first people in 75 years to do substantive work to, to
23:13
address this. So we'd we'd like to see Du
23:17
Parquet moving forward towards a pre feasibility study or
23:20
feasibility study in 2027 and then that I think can follow not
23:25
that far behind spring poll in that process, right.
23:28
So you know, it's as we had it scoped in our PEA in excess of
23:34
200,000 oz a year. So we were only mining 2 and a
23:38
half million ounces of the 6,000,000 oz we have on our
23:41
existing property. Lots of room to continue to see
23:43
that grow. And I mean, Ron, you've been,
23:47
you know, this is a project that is a highway running over the
23:50
top of it that's half an hour from a city with a copper
23:54
smelter that's been running for 100 years.
23:55
So it doesn't get any more mining country than here for
23:58
sure. Yeah, that's what you took the
24:00
words right out of my mouth. My impression was that is mining
24:04
country and it feels like in in from what I've read and from
24:08
what I've heard from listening to you that that there really is
24:13
some real genuine community interest and support in seeing
24:18
things continued to be developed in that area.
24:22
Which, yeah, we, we signed a really important agreement with
24:24
the the city of Duparque last year in the fall that basically
24:32
says that we are going to plan the town and plan the mine
24:36
together. So the town it's, I mean, you've
24:39
been, it's a beautiful part of the world.
24:41
The town really, I think has has a real opportunity to grow,
24:46
attract new citizens, very supportive of having a mine in
24:50
the town that will bring jobs, bring economic prosperity, all
24:54
the spin off benefits that come from that.
24:57
And you know, there's we've started that with the transfer
25:00
of some of the land because with when we purchased the project,
25:04
we actually acquired, well, I don't know what came with the
25:07
project was historically the old mining company had the surface
25:11
right, like a lot of the surface rights around the town.
25:13
So it just gives us an opportunity to work with the
25:16
with the, the city to plan, you know, how it's going to grow and
25:22
get that real grassroots input into the development of the
25:27
project upfront, which is something that, you know, I
25:30
think goes a long way to allowing us to design and
25:34
ultimately build a project that both, you know, is, is an
25:40
attractive, you know, development project from our
25:44
company and the shareholders perspectives, but equally is
25:47
something that's done thoughtfully with infrastructure
25:50
development of the town in mind as well.
25:53
So, yeah, it's a, it's a super exciting process.
25:56
So it, you know, still more exploration going on, lots of
26:01
work there this year. But I think, you know, give us
26:05
to the end of 2026 and we're going to be able to reveal what
26:08
I think will be a, a very, very interesting planet to park in.
26:12
Yeah, there's one thing I've learned in my years following
26:16
mining stocks is location. Location matters.
26:20
It's a big advantage if you're located near great
26:23
infrastructure and community support.
26:25
Community engagement is a big thing.
26:27
I mean, it has to benefit everybody.
26:29
And I know that's something you always talk about with all the
26:32
projects that, you know, this has to benefit everyone
26:35
involved, all the stakeholders involved.
26:38
A quick question for you. I was preparing for this
26:41
interview last night. I was thinking how, you know,
26:43
first mining gold gets kind of labeled as a junior mining
26:47
stock, but I thought that was kind of a almost a misnomer
26:51
because while you're a junior mining stock, the projects that
26:54
you have are like major big projects.
26:59
Do do you, do you think that that that, that kind of sets you
27:04
apart from a lot of the other junior mining stocks that are
27:07
out there? Well, I think so when when we
27:09
think of junior mining stocks, you kind of think of, you know,
27:12
everything from that exploration through the development stage to
27:16
like small producers. And it just implies like you've
27:20
got a small project. And listen, there's lots of
27:21
great companies that have mines that produce 50,000 oz a year.
27:26
And today those mines are making a lot of money.
27:28
So, you know, far be it for me to to talk about that, that
27:32
strategy and working for them. But for us, we have really
27:36
focused on the development of these large resource projects
27:40
and as you know, kind of paired our portfolio down and and
27:45
turned a lot of the other assets in the portfolio into cash to
27:48
allow us to do that. So you know, we continue doing
27:51
that with our our deal with our Cameron project and our our new
27:55
partner Sava Mining, which we're very excited about that
27:58
company's just started trading again.
28:01
You know, similarly, Pickle Crow is going into new hands with a
28:04
new partner, Bella Vista Resources, and I think you're
28:08
going to see a lot more activity in and around Pickle Crow as
28:11
well. They've raised $35 million, then
28:14
most of that's going into the ground and drilling.
28:16
So, yeah, no, we've I think we've done a good job of kind of
28:21
really working that portfolio to free up cash to allow us to
28:24
focus on the big strategically meaningful assets, which was a
28:29
thankless task when no one cared over the last number of years,
28:32
Ron, to be honest. But where we are now, we're we
28:35
always kind of said we wanted to have the projects ready for the
28:37
time that the industry needs them the most.
28:40
And the one thing we are highly confident of is that time is
28:43
here and that time is now. So there we go.
28:46
Yeah. It, it feels like since I've
28:48
been following the company closely, the evolution has been
28:52
that you strategically kind of monetized some of the other
28:56
projects while at the same time positioning the company to be
29:01
able to benefit in the long run. Is those projects do develop.
29:05
But what it's giving you now is saying, correct me if I'm wrong,
29:08
but the ability to really laser focus on spring pull and du
29:12
parquet and and and and move those forward.
29:16
And like you said, there's no better time than than right now,
29:20
so. Yeah.
29:21
And really, I mean, really importantly, it gave us the
29:24
financial ability to do the real work to move these projects
29:29
forward when most other project developers just didn't have
29:33
access to capital and so therefore weren't doing the same
29:38
amount of work. And, you know, you're talking
29:40
about, you know, 10s of millions of dollars a year that have to
29:44
go into advancing a project like spring pull through an EA
29:47
process in Ontario. So yeah, we're we're we're
29:51
fortunate to have had that portfolio to be able to do that.
29:56
And that's really kind of a testament to, you know, the
29:59
foresight of our founder, Mr. Neumeyer and and the first
30:03
mining board to see, you know, the strategy of maximizing some
30:07
of the value there in order to be able to continue advancing
30:11
these projects through a tough market.
30:13
Yep, I, I agree, Keith Neumeyer had great foresight.
30:16
But I want to compliment you and your team as well because you're
30:19
correct. You know, 248 years ago, a lot
30:22
of the junior mining companies were doing nothing and you kept
30:27
the ball rolling. You kept, you know, advancing
30:30
the projects even during what I think some of us could call some
30:34
of the darkest times in the sector.
30:36
But now that's paying off. Now the company is further ahead
30:41
and has maybe an advantage over over some other companies that
30:45
that put things to sleep for a while.
30:46
So. Yeah, I don't mean people.
30:48
People forget we not only, you know, advance the projects, but
30:52
we acquired Duparte in, you know, 2022 when no one wanted to
30:57
do anything. And that's part of the reason
30:59
why we were able to acquire it at, at what I think in hindsight
31:04
will prove to have been a a pretty attractive value.
31:07
And you know, I, I want hindsight, hopefully will show
31:12
that we've been good stewards of the project and moving it
31:14
towards ultimately our goal there, which is the original
31:19
mine at Dupart a started production in 1933.
31:23
And so our our goal is that we're back in production in Du
31:27
Parque by 2033 for the 100th anniversary.
31:29
We want to be porn gold. So all right, lots of work to
31:32
do, but yeah, that's that's the focus.
31:35
And, and, and hopefully I can get back up there.
31:37
I want to show the viewer the company website.
31:40
And then I want to ask you kind of what you see happening
31:45
throughout 2026, things that you might be excited about, but
31:49
here's the company website, guysfirstmininggold.com.
31:53
You can go out here, all types of information.
31:57
The company presentation, again, that's firstmininggold.com and
32:02
see if I can get Ron and Dan back up.
32:04
There we are. Dan, as you look through 2026, I
32:07
think I know one of the answers to this question, but what are
32:10
you most excited about it it that that potentially could
32:14
happen this year? Well, I think, you know,
32:16
particularly on spring poll, we have this EA decision, which
32:20
kind of looks like it's tracking for the second quarter.
32:24
You know, it would be our goal that we could hopefully be in a
32:27
position to have some agreements with communities before that
32:32
leading up to that environmental assessment decision.
32:37
And then, you know, you're we're we're doing a bunch of field
32:40
work at Spring Pool right now, gathering what we think is kind
32:43
of the last day that we need for a feasibility study.
32:45
So that fees would be kind of a late 26, early 27 event.
32:52
And yeah, it's gonna, it's gonna get busy at Spring Pool very
32:57
quickly here as we do all those things that we need to do to
33:00
take it, you know, into detailed engineering and, you know,
33:03
project optimization design and, and through permitting towards
33:06
what we think is a construction decision, you know, late 27,
33:10
early 28. So still lots of work to do for
33:13
sure, but that major, major milestone for this project of
33:18
the environmental assessment decision really is right around
33:21
the corner. So that's exciting there and at
33:24
at Dupar K continued exploration results, you know this
33:28
environmental baseline work that we're doing and moving that
33:30
project forward. It might be a little more quiet
33:34
at Dupart K this year than we've had with the exploration results
33:37
in the last couple of years, but they will continue.
33:41
And I think towards the end of the year, we'll have a much
33:44
better understanding of timing and process on how we move that
33:47
forward. So really good progress on two
33:50
of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Canada and
33:52
significant, significant catalyst coming in the next few
33:56
months. Thank you.
33:57
Thank, thank, thank you for that.
33:59
And it sounds like you are handling the things that you can
34:02
control. And then, you know, we also
34:04
wouldn't complain about even higher gold prices, right?
34:08
Every little bit helps, but yeah, I at this point I kind of
34:12
worry about the world that we're in when the gold price goes
34:14
much, much higher. But no, the important thing,
34:18
Ron, is like this project at a, you know, $2500 gold price has a
34:23
really attractive financial profile.
34:26
So, you know, it is robust that way.
34:29
And so you know, we don't need it, but every little bit helps.
34:33
Sounds good, Dan. On behalf of myself and our
34:35
viewer who's joined us today, I want to say thank you.
34:38
You shared some great insights into the overall precious metals
34:42
market, but in particular the exciting developments at first
34:46
mining gold. It's going to be fun to see how
34:48
2026 unfolds. So thank you for joining us
34:52
today. Always a pleasure my friend,
34:54
Always a pleasure to be in the basement.
34:56
Alright, we'll see you next time.
34:57
Thanks. Thanks, Ron.
34:58
Yeah.