First Mining Gold

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Mining goals. So Richard Wang, vice president of corporate development, Richard will be doing a corporate presentation. Welcome, Richard. Hey, Tanya, how are you? Good to see you. Hello, hello. Right. OK, so I'm, Richard Huang, VP corporate Development First Mining Gold, and here to talk to you about, First Mining. He's making a few forward looking statements. So at first Mining, we're building tomorrow's gold producer. We're currently a gold development company advancing two of Canada's largest gold projects, the Duparquet Gold project in Quebec and the Springpool Gold Project in Ontario. These two projects form the bulk of a resource base which is 8.2 million ounces of M&I and 3.8 million ounces of inferred. The Springpool Gold Project is a large, robust open pit gold project that is in the final stages of an environmental assessment process. We released a very robust PFS in December, and will embark on a feasibility study later this year. The DuFarquey Gold Project is another large gold development asset located in the Abitibi Gold Belt in Quebec. Our last economic study, a PEA released in 2023, showed very positive economics in a much lower gold price environment. Which was $1800 and we expect to have much more attractive economics at a higher gold price. Historically we've had a portfolio of other assets where we've where we've had a track record of monetizing in the last 6 years we've raised about $90 million in monetizing these assets which has reduced the need for new dilution and shareholder. And a new dilution and and new equity we continue to have several key assets in the portfolio that's gonna reduce the need for new financing going forward. We have a strong leadership team in place in exploration, permitting and project development that can successfully de-risk and advance our major projects. And last but not least, in today's gold price environment, our ownership in two of the largest gold projects in Canada provide unparalleled leverage to a rising gold price. So here's the geographic orientation of our asset base with Spring pool and Duparquet being our flagship assets. Springpole is located in northwestern Ontario. We released a PFS in December, as we mentioned, and our final, final, final environmental assessment was submitted in November of 2024. We expect a federal EA decision in the coming months, which would put this project as the next mining project in Canada to receive a decision. Our current resource base at Spring pulls 4.8 million ounces of gold in the M&I category. And 0.8 million ounces of gold in the inferred category. Duparquet, as we mentioned, is located in Quebec. It is on the site of a past producing mine, once the largest gold producer in Quebec, and now undergoing renewed exploration and advancing towards project development. There's more than 300,000 m of historical drilling, and we've currently completed a 20,000 m drill program in 2025 with strong results and will likely add to that this year. It has a resource base of 3.4 million ounces in the MNI category and 2.6 million ounces in the inferred category, and with the success of a recent exploration program, we do expect these numbers to increase in the near to medium term. And we just want to highlight a couple of other assets in our portfolio. They're non-core assets. We currently own a minority position in the in the Pickle Cre Project in Ontario, which is currently being advanced by Firefly Metals. They recently announced their position, the 70% sale to a company called Bella Vista Resources, which is run right now by a group that, recently sold DeGrade Mining to Northern Star Resources for more than $3.3 billion. With the new team, we see a ton of opportunity and more importantly, It doesn't require any financial contribution from first Mining because we free carry to a decision of mining. And our second noncore position is a 48% equity stake in Seva Mining, a new company formed which owns the Cameron Gold project which we recently sold to them. It's backed by the Fiore Group and led by Frank Giustra and has a demonstrated track record of generating significant shareholder value. So our focus here is to highlight our two key assets, Spring pool and Duparquet, but wanted to also highlight our other assets because these assets will provide the funding runway to really provide the growth that's needed at Springpool and Duparquet. So here's a capital markets overview of first mining gold currently trading today at about 51 cents, market cap of $700 million cash balance of $40 million and a marketable portfolio, marketable securities portfolio today in excess of $40 million which includes our stake in Sava Mining. Management and directors own about 7.5% of the company including our founder, Keith Newmeyer, which owns, who owns about 3 to 3 and 3.5%, and that also includes First Majestic's ownership of 2.4%. 23% is held institutionally with the rest remaining, held by high net worth and retail investors. And last but not least, we do have strong support in the capital markets with 66 analysts covering us, and we do expect to expand this coverage universe in the in the coming, In the coming months. So here's the compelling opportunity at First Mining, as we mentioned, we own two of the most advanced gold development assets in Canada, yet there's a huge disconnect between our evaluation and other advanced development projects on both a $1 per ounce basis and on a peanut basis. We trade at about $40 an ounce in the ground. Our peers, our advanced development peers, trade close to $400 an ounce, and on a price and net asset value basis, we trade at just under 0.2 times. Our peers trade close to 1 times. As we continue through the development path and de-risk our spring pool project, we expect there to be an opportunity to significantly bridge this gap between us and our peers. And here's an overview of the largest gold projects in Canada. As we can see, the options are scarce, and at First Mining, we own two of the largest development projects. Our ownership in these two projects are especially favorable because operating in tier one jurisdictions and owning large robust projects are becoming increasingly more important. More importantly though, we don't only own two of the largest projects, we also own one of the most advanced projects. It's important to differentiate us because, because permitting timelines in Canada are usually long and comprehensive, and at Spring pole, we're nearing a process which typically takes 5 years. And just to touch on Spring pool just a little bit, we talked a lot about it already, but we have a resource of 4.8 million ounces in the MNI category, of which 3.1 million ounces are in the reserve category. It's currently scoped as a large open pit asset, as we mentioned, latest PFS was released in December with robust Economics, which I'll touch on, on the next page. it's located in a Tron mining jurisdiction of Ontario, and, geographically it's about 100 kilometers east of Red Lake. So here are the PFS highlights from a study in December, project production profile to average about 300,000 ounces life of mine, about 330,000 ounces in the first five years. The ASIC is expected to be sub 950, about 938 an ounce, and with an initial capital cost of $1.1 billion US. Using a steady price of $3100 gold, $3550 silver, this produces an after-tax NPV at 5% of $2.1 billion NPV and an IRR of 41% and payback of just under two years. Production profile at Spring pole, very steady production profile over the first eight years, averaging over 300,000 ounces a year. life of mine grid of 0.9 times and life of mine grid of 0.9 g a ton, and 1.1 over the first five years. And there's actually a significant opportunity to increase this mine life through resource expansion in the existing deposit. But more important to note, we also own a district scale land package, the Bertucci Greenstone Belt. Of 75,000 hectares which can provide meaningful feed through successful exploration. So here's a bit more detail in PFS. A couple of important metrics to highlight. the open pit project is scoped as a 30,000 ton a day project. the strip ratio right now as it sits is 3 to 1. we do want to highlight though that a lot of the waste right now currently in the mine plant is sitting in inferred and in the pit, and we do see opportunity to process that inferred material which would reduce that strip ratio. Secondly, this is a gold and silver deposit. 5% of our revenue comes from silver. as, scoped in the PFS, we're using a silver price of 33 $3550 that produces an ASIC byproduct cost of $938. If we use a more, a silver price more closely resembling spot at about $80 an ounce, that ASIC is actually less than $800 an ounce. And more importantly, I wanna draw your attention to the to the sensitivity table on the bottom left there, the base case scenario was $3100 at the time of publication. Spot was $4200 silver was $51. If we use those metrics, the NPV increases at $3.8 billion US, after tax IRR of 63% and payback of just over one year. And needless to say, at spot, $5000 gold, these numbers become even more attractive. And so what big projects offer is significant leverage to a rising gold price environment. At Spring poll, we, we mentioned we flexed this up to $4200 gold, which showed extremely robust economics and even more so at spot prices. wanted to touch on Duparque just a little bit because we're gonna not have enough time to talk about in detail. Our base case study in 2023 was a PEA done at an $1800 gold price that produced an after-tax IRR of 18% and NPV of close to $600 million US, Canadian. But increasing that to just the high-end sensitivity of our 2023 study at $2200 gold increases that NPV to $1.1 billion Canadian dollars and 28% IRR and our current spot prices that would increase even more, and we're limited to what we can disclose because the high-end sensitivity, in our 2023 study was at $2200. So we'll stick to that. But understanding that, that spot it's gonna be a much higher, much higher, and, and robust economics. So taken together, the high level math between the two projects is each $100 increase in the gold price increases our total fundamental net asset value inside first Minning by $230 million US. So for reference, our current market cap today is about $250 million about $600 million market cap. So each $250 million increase in the gold price would add the equivalent of our market cap and our fundamental value. And so the opportunity for investors is this, if you're looking for exposure to leverage the gold price, first, mining doesn't have one, but two large significant gold assets that can provide investors with significant leverage to a rising gold price environment. So we put it all together in this compelling rerating opportunity here. We previously mentioned we trade at a significant discount to peers. We're trading at 0.16 times our net asset value. That's currently made up of $4 billion of NAV comprised of $2.9 billion at Spring pole in Canadian dollars and $1.1 billion at Duparquet at $2200 gold in Canadian dollars as well, and that gives us an NAV of $291 a share. If we assume a spot case at Spring pole that adds another incremental $2.4 billion in NPV, bringing our total NPV in the company to $6.4 billion or $466 a share. Looking at it from a price to net asset value basis, we currently trade at 0.16 times as we mentioned, and our peers are currently trading at close to 1 times. the historical advanced developer average is between 0.6 and 0.8. So if we rerate to a 0.6 to 0.8 times average using the base case, it produces a share price of between 174 and 232. And if we use the spot case, it increases to 279 and 373. This is a meaningful share price appreciation from current levels in the tune of 3 to 7 times. So we believe there are significant de-risking milestones ahead that can that can provide investors with this opportunity to realize this re-rating. So 2026 is going to be a very critical year for first mining, and as we look ahead in 2026, our key focus will be this sustaining the positive momentum in both the financial and regulatory environment to advance our Spring pool project. We expect both a Canadian federal and Ontario provincial decision in the coming months, which will make Springpole the next mining project in the country to receive this decision. This is a monumental catalyst for the company. We will continue building and fostering relationships with indigenous communities who in addition to the government are very important and critical partners for us. We've signed long term relationship agreements and process agreements with a lot of communities and we hope to build on that moving forward. And following the completion of our PFS in December, as we mentioned, we're going to embark on a feasibility which is gonna continue to de-risk this project. So we believe those three things at Spring pole will significantly de-risk this project as we progress towards a construction decision which will ultimately bridge the evaluation gap between us and our peers. On the evaluation front, we expect to have updated exploration results at both our spring poll and Duparquet projects. At Duparquet, we're gonna be kicking off an environmental baseline work program and also commencing on a new economic study to advance the project and move it through the regulatory permitting process. And last but not least, we'll continue monitoring our non-core asset portfolio to potentially monetize and provide continued financial flexibility to our flagship assets. And here's an overview of our global gold resource base as we mentioned, 3.1 million ounce reserve, 8.2 million ounces in the M&I category, and 3.8 million ounces in the inferred category. And I I'll leave it at that. There's a ton more information that I probably don't wanna get into too much detail. thank you for listening. please visit First MiningGold.com for more information. our director of investor relations Paul Morris is here as well. feel free to reach out at paul@first MiningGold.com. Thanks for listening, yeah. thank you, Richard. We're gonna open it up for questions from the audience. No questions. OK, Richard, I've got a few questions for you. just wanted to come back to, you know, you talked about your evaluation and, You know, being so, so much cheaper than your peers, my first question is, why do you think that is the case? Do you think it's because, and maybe you can also discuss your funding, how are you going to fund these two projects? Yeah, good question, and, You know, permitting is part of any mining development path. for some it's a foregone conclusion. For others, like First Mining, who owns the Spring pole project, and it should have touched on this, but understandably for those who understand the project, you can see the open pit, on the screen. A part of it sits under the bay of a lake, and we're gonna have to build two dikes and dewater a basin. Where the pit is gonna be and so when this was discovered it was always stigmatized and had this negative perception that you're the project under the Bay of a Lake you're never gonna get permitted and we've been through this, we've been through this process for the last 8 years. there's always been that evaluation disconnect because the view was always, well, come talk to us when you get your permit. we've done a lot of work in the background, work that doesn't get published and people don't see, but we are literally 2 months away from a decision that has taken 8 years to get to, and the only way to, satisfy the concerns of these negative perceptions is to get that permit. And so we feel like that's gonna be a huge catalyst. And secondly, on the indigenous relations front, we're consulting with 5 different communities, Typically if you, you know, work, with a project, if there's 1 or 2, it can get complicated. 5 is it could be even more complicated. we do have agreements with a couple of them and we're working very, very hard and collaboratively, to come to terms with the other 3. it's a reason why our CEO isn't here today. He's hard at work trying to finalize these agreements, and we feel confident with these in place and with this, decision. it will be two big de-risking milestones that will see your evaluation rerate from where we are to where we can be. And, and just on, on the environmental permit that we were expecting to get shortly, with the, the two dikes that you need to put next to the lake, what is around there? Do you need to move the fish? Do you need to move other fauna? Yeah, no, yeah, good question. There's, there's been a ton of work done on the fish habitat in that basin. there's no, there's some fish there, but we're gonna be, we're gonna take all the fish and we're gonna move it over to the broader Spring Pool Lake. And just for reference, it is 3%. Of the broader lake body and so this is a very, very minor disturbance. the dikes are not an engineering challenge by any means. the capital cost to actually build the dikes is $30 million so not financially excessive, not technically challenged. there are 15 years of data on that basin in that lake that have all the data to back up what we're doing is gonna be environmentally acceptable. and I think it's gonna culmin in this, in this, federal EEA decision that's coming in a couple of months. And, and just maybe to finish off on the indigenous communities, you've got 5 of them, and yes, it's usually easier when you have 1 or 2. of the 5, I mean, are, are, you know, are we all on the same page with respect to how they want this project to be developed? I could start off by saying, none of the communities are anti-mining, which is a great start because everyone wants to see a project go through. there is, negotiations on what the financial metrics should be, how the environment should be protected, potential job opportunities, contract contracting opportunities, with one particular group there may be some discussion on. Is there an opportunity where the tailings dam is right now, is there an opportunity to move that to another location? And so we're in deep discussions, on that subject, it's gonna be where it is, but is there an opportunity to make that maybe a little bit smaller and have a second location, that could, kind of satisfy any, request that they may have, so we can kind of be a win-win for both parties, have it there, make it a bit smaller, but have another location as well. And, and maybe for, for just myself in terms of your two projects, so how are we looking to finance them and how are we looking to sequence their, their build? Yeah, so spring poll is, is the lowest hanging fruit. we're gonna embark on an FS, we're gonna get to a construction decision hopefully within 18 months of this federal EA which will, bring us to the end of 2027. I think at a time when the project is so de-risked and shovel ready. There are, I think opportunities to consider whether we will develop this on our own or whether it makes sense for someone else to come partner with us or if, it's shovel ready, is there someone that's gonna want to own 100% of it, And so clearly that's our focus. Duparque we feel has a tremendous amount of potential. it's a project that can be developed by herself. The capital cost is actually significantly lower, in the tune of 500 million US, but it's at an earlier stage, PEA level, and so the sequencing is let's get us to a construction decision at first at, at Spring pole and then go down a traditional project financing path maybe 12 months before then. and then see what the lay of the land is, and then, move forward potentially with two park as we know, developing one project is hard enough. we don't expect to be developing two at the same time. Thank you very much, Richard. Thank you. Great question. Thank you so much.