I more or less agree with his views on gold. The run up has been very strong but like I also have stated many times we have been way due for a correction. I myself expect gold to correct to somewhere around $2300-$2500. This should be more than enough to get most of the commercials to liquidate their short positions and start and new major move higher and above $3000/oz.

I recommend to watch the Commitment of Traders report at barchart.com for gold because every time we have been seeing the commercials heavily liquidate their shorts we have started major long term moves upwards. The last two times (2015/16 and 2018) the commercials where actually net long we got major moves upwards shortly after that.

So this correction is actually a very good thing and a healthy development for the market. If we can manage to stay above $2000/oz. now until the commercials have gone net long then the setup will be EXTREMELY BULLISH going forward. There should be more than enough support above $2000 to accomplish this.

With regards to FFMG, the gold price does not make any difference for the story right now. Both Springpole and Duparquet are very valuable projects with gold north of $2k. We need the permits for Springpole and we need to upgrade the resource base at Duparquet to ideally over 10m ounces in the ground. When these two milestones are reached we will be up for grabs.

Cat Lake as a FN is finished without the money from Springpole. The amount of social problems they have will just compound over time until they eventually will become a ghost town and die out. They are so remote even compared to the other Canadian FNs around Springpole they just won't have the capacity to survive going forward. They are 100% dependent upon the government funding and that will not change going forward. Canada will imo elect more right leaning politicians in the upcoming elections both Ontario and nationally, so time is running out here for Cat Lake.

This is why I really think they will jump on board here in the end no matter what they say right now about this or that. The Chief just have to realize how important it is for his community that Springpole gets developed. Everything they have been wishing for can be built if Springpole gets developed. Cat Lake could get jobs for generations if this gets done. And I'm sure it will get done with or without Cat Lake because there are other FNs and interests involved as well.

I just want to bring your attention to a statement given out by the previous Cat Lake chief back in 2018:

Chief Ernest Wesley of the Cat Lake First Nation stated, “Our community is very excited to be developing this project with First Mining. We have hope and confidence that the signing of these partnership agreements will bring jobs and economic benefits to the Cat Lake First Nation and all partner communities in our Shared Territory. We are looking forward to working with First Mining on all of their projects in our Shared Territory.”

As you can see from this statement it is pretty obvious that Cat Lake as a community is not at all opposed to this project. The same project sat under a lake back in 2018 when evidently developing it posed no problem at all for Cat Lake. How come all of this suddenly changed with the new chief? You mean to tell me that nobody was worried about the impacts of this project back in 2018 (when mostly all of the same EA material was available) but now all of a sudden they are? It does just not make any sense whatsoever. It's all just politics guys. They are trying to get the government to promise them the building of a permanent road network. This is what this is all about. And it won't happen unless they develop Springpole. The Chief knows this fully well.

I think this is more of an issue that the government and Cat Lake must work out and FFMG can serve as a good intermediary to negotiate a good solution where everybody wins. The EA approval will come no doubt. Keep in mind that Lac Seul FN also now has a say in the project and I'm quite sure they are very interested in the economic benefits this project will bring. What if they go ahead and approve of this project before Cat Lake? It will put Cat Lake in a very bad spot negotiation wise. They will simply have no choice but to get on board here. There is no way a billion dollar project of this size will be determined by a remote community of 600 people. Especially when it's more than clear that everybody will win big here.

Thank god we got Trump for POTUS!

I actually expect gold to correct now for some time. This is also what happened when Trump won last time. People will get enthusiastic about the economy and maybe they will think the war in Ukraine and ME will come to an end. All of this will put pressure on gold. But in the bigger picture nothing has changed. Trump is a big spender and will make the debt explode to new highs. The fiscal situation in the US is not fixable any longer.

But Trump is pro business which should good all around and we will most likely see similar trends in the upcoming elections in Canada as well. People are completely fed up with leftist policies and will vote for candidates who favor the economy,

Yup, actually Keith stated in that recently removed interview that he does not know of a single instance where an EA has been filed and not approved in the end because usually companies won't even bother to start the process unless they basically know the government is on their side. It's just way too expensive and time consuming for a developer or even a bigger company to try and gamble on a longshot on an EA permit. Sometimes it takes a little while to work out all the details and there might be some back and forth negotiations, but in the end these bigger projects get permitted. The government also knows there are a lot of eyeballs on this asset right now, so for them to not approve it would basically be a very bad move politically in terms of attracting new capital to the region. These government guys want this project approved just as much as we do because it means billions of dollars for them in revenues as well as lots of jobs and infrastructure which always looks good for any politician.

With regards to Cat Lake, it's really a "do or die" type of situation here. There is no way this small remote community of some 600 people will survive economically in the coming decades without this asset being developed. If Springpole fails, then Cat Lake will be doomed and the problems they are now facing will just compound over time until that community eventually becomes a ghost town. This is just the cold hard reality of their situation and why they are in desperate need of good jobs and new infrastructure.

Agree with everything here. In the end, the $ sign is what will approve this project. There has to be at least a few Cat Lake / Indigenous based companies that would benefit very much economically from this project. FFMG would most likely contract them just out of sheer good will even though there might be more qualified companies in the area. But I think the FN people should benefit from this as much as possible. They have had horrible living conditions for a long time with lots of poverty, substance abuse, alcoholism etc. so Springpole really is a once in a generation opportunity to transform this community once and for all.

"Through the creation of over 43,000 person-years of employment, over $2 billion in government revenue, and with the training, employment and business opportunities for local and Indigenous communities, Springpole is positioned to be the new economic engine for Northwestern Ontario”.

There will be some back and forth negotiations now between FFMG and Cat Lake during 2025-2026, but in the end they will come to an agreement. The governmental EA approval is what the bigger companies want to see first and foremost.

Like I have said before, Cat Lake will basically be left to rot if they manage to blow this entire progress or halt the project development completely. Their community is so remote and without any road network it just makes it almost impossible to service them in any meaningful way going forward. You can be sure the Doug Ford government will not forgive them if they manage to somehow F up this progress. They will be left in poverty and misery for years to come and most likely eventually die out anyways. We are talking about a community of some 600 people here. That's just the reality here for them. I'm quite sure Cat Lake is quite aware of this and this is why they desperately need that permanent road network they have been wishing for for many years. The only realistic way this will happen is if Springpole gets developed. Basically this will come down to giving Cat Lake a promise of the road network. I am confident they will sign an agreement in the end because the government for sure will approve of this project.

The way I see this is that Cat Lake is trying to make sure their concerns will be heard this time around. They won't give their final approval to Springpole until they feel they have squeezed everything out of it they can. The problem with this approach is that it might backfire on Cat Lake in the end. This project will receive the EA approval, I'm almost 100% confident about this. Cat Lake is trying to assert their control over the project, but I'm afraid they might try and overplay their hand here if they remain too stubborn. I think both parties know exactly where they stand and will eventually sign an agreement where everybody wins. I just cannot see a scenario where Cat Lake blows this entire operation. Sure, it's possible, but I think it's highly unlikely. They have already agreed to sign the process agreement which shows very good faith from FFMG regarding the FN led assessment. They will simply have no choice in the end but to get on board here.

If a project receives governmental EA approval then it means all the boxes have been checked in a very formal process which also includes consultation with First Nations. There is not much Cat Lake can do here if FFMG can show scientifically it can mitigate all environmental impacts of the project. And FFMG has done this in the EA.

I still think Springpole will get developed. The final EA has now been submitted which means the only thing we really need here is the community agreement with Cat Lake. It will take some time but we will get there. The company has been able to deliver so far so I just cannot see a situation where Cat Lake would ruin everything. And if everything really would fail here regarding Springpole, we still have Duparquet in the portfolio which could turn out to be much bigger than Springpole. I will see this story to the end, that's for sure.

Coincidentally, the volume has been quite small in recent days which means it's once again retail investors moving the stock down.

Yup, Agnico is definitely one of the best miners out there right now. They have some land packages quite near Duparquet so it would definitely not be to far fetched for them to make a deal with us. Many investors are so focused on Springpole right now it seems they have completely forgotten about Duparquet and how important that asset will turn out to be for us.

If Duparquet can be grown to a 10m+ oz. asset then we are sitting on an absolutely monster deposit. If we get a new updated PEA next year with the updated resources base and a higher gold price (they used $1800/oz. gold in the last one) you could be looking at an after tax NPV of over a billion dollars very easily. Most likely it would approach two billion dollars with a gold price closer to $3k per ounce. Duparquet does not suffer from the same "EA issue" as Springpole with the lake and everything although I think that risk is already basically eliminated at this point.

A JV deal with AEM to develop Duparquet or Springpole (or both?) would be a complete game changer for us right away. I'm pretty sure that would 5-10x the share price almost right away simply because the vote of confidence from such a big miner would be huge. It would mean in all likelihood that AEM would buy us out completely at some later point, hopefully with a share exchange so we could keep on benefitting from the current macro setup. I myself would 100% keep the AEM shares if it comes to that. That company is superb.

This would be huge news for us if that is indeed the case. AEM is one of the best names in the industry and partnering up with them I think would be a complete game changer when it comes to the share price.

Exactly. My point was also that it makes sense for us as FFMG shareholders to get along with Cat Lake even though the governmental EA approval won't require any of it. The fact that they are able to sign this process agreement shows clearly they get along well enough to also draft and sign upcoming community agreements regarding the entire mining operation.

There is simply no point in completely ignoring their concerns as that can only lead to problems later on. Keith himself said in many interviews he wants to transform these poor FN communities just like he transformed the lives of many poor Mexicans and built entire towns for these people where their kids could go to school etc.

We know Cat Lake has been wishing for that road network for many years and the reality is that developing Springpole is the only way that will ever happen. If Cat Lake turns it's back on Springpole then you can be sure they will be left in poverty for decades to come.

This is why I am so confident Springpole will get developed. Everybody wins here big time if we can get that up and running as soon as possible. The government already sees the massive amounts of tax dollars and jobs it will create so there won't be any opposition from them, trust me. It really is a matter of working out the details between all of the parties. The reality is that we as shareholders will only "win" if also the FNs and government win as well. I cannot see any good scenario for us where the mine gets developed and Cat Lake is in strict opposition to it. It will just look bad and probably lead to some kind of litigations down the road. Why not just work together from the beginning and make sure all concerns are heard and dealt with?

The way to do this entire operation is to do it right from the beginning. Too many developers and miners are half-assing these EA & FN issues and we have seen what that can lead to. FFMG is clearly showing a clear intent to involve the FNs during this review and that is the way to do it. Will there still be obstacles to overcome in the negotiations? You bet. But Cat Lake also knows fully well they simply can't demand too much because I'm sure they don't want to jeopardize the entire progress made right now. It's not like they are "in charge" here in any way. This is why I'm happy to have Steve on the frontlines. He clearly knows his business and is able to "paint the picture" of what it can mean for Cat Lake and their community if they develop Springpole.

My understanding is that the EA approval requires that the company has consulted with the FNs about the project. It's just a "box to be checked" in a formal process and this is why so many First Nations have complained about not having enough time and resources to do their own reviews about any potential mining operation on their lands. This is why I think this agreement between FFMG and Cat Lake / Lac Seul is so important because it shows that FFMG takes this FN issue seriously enough to involve itself with the FN's own impact assessment. If you completely ignore the wishes of the FNs (as many miners have done in the past) you can be sure they will do whatever they can to slow you down. FFMG clearly has established good dialogue with Cat Lake and now they can move forward together until we receive the final EA approval form the government.

I still want to stress the fact that this has nothing to do with the official EA process. The government will approve this project if the company is able to "check all the boxes" with regards to the project plan. And we already know FFMG has done this due to the preliminary EA submission. There is no question in my mind this project will be approved. But FFMG involving itself with Cat Lake's own assessment is a very symbolic thing to do and it shows the company takes the FN issue seriously. If they can work together on the FN assessment and support the community about their concerns it can only be a win for us in the end. This will most likely lead to a situation where they are able to sign a community agreement about the development of Springpole.

Like I have said before, Cat Lake must know this is more or less their last chance of lifting their community out of poverty and create lasting wealth for many generations to come. Canada will move more to the right in the years to come and their community (and many other FNs) will be left in misery if they won't get on board here. There is not a single miner in the world that will go through 10-15 years of permitting work and spend hundreds of millions of dollars if they know a FN will stand in the way. They have this one chance right now to make this go right. I am quite certain the government will approve of this project either way in the end. The project's economic impact is just too big to ignore.

I am sure they will sign a community agreement in the next year or so when their own internal assessment is done. Everybody will win big here if Springpole get's developed to it's full potential.

The way I understand the agreement is that FFMG and the FNs have agreed upon clear terms of what it means to conduct their own impact assessment. Basically all parties have a clear understanding about what they want out of Springpole and from each other regarding the approval of the project plan. This is very important because it basically means there is nothing right now that either FFMG or Cat Lake / Lac Seul sees as a "red flag" which would bring negotiations to a complete halt. There are certain milestones/steps that Cat Lake and Lac Seul want completed and it seems FFMG is completely fine with this.

Keep in mind this has nothing at all to do with the official EA approval process. This is an agreement between the FNs and FFMG about how they will conduct their own internal assessment about the project. But it serves as a very good indicator that these parties are now on such good terms they are able to sign binding agreements about how to move the project forward. Clearly Cat Lake / Lac Seul both want this project developed. Why would they even bother with their own review if they opposed the project? They are clearly on board here.

Next we will submit the final EA which starts the formal clock to receive the EA permit and before that is received I'm quite certain we will have signed further agreements with the FNs about how to move forward.

Any potential investor or bigger miner who is interested in this story must see this as a positive development. Environmental and FN risk is clearly a concern for many so any good news on this front is very good news overall.

For me this was big news guys!

FFMG has signed an FN agreement with both Cat Lake and Lac Seul. This a very important thing going forward because it clearly shows that both Cat Lake and Lac Seul are onboard here with developing Springpole. They just need to be included in the process and this agreement is a clear vote of confidence from them. They would never sign something like this if they felt the project is completely a "no go" from their view. I don't care if the share price reacts to this or not, this is a very big deal either way going forward.

https://firstmininggold.com/news/releases/first-mining-signs-process-agreement-with-cat-lake-first-nation-and-lac-seul-first-nation-supporting-anishinaabe-led-impact-assessment

Just one thing I like to throw out there for anyone still doubting if Keith has what it takes to create another billion dollar company with FFMG. Just look at the timing of the recent acquisition he made with First Majestic for Gatos. Dude basically nailed that purchase to perfection regarding the timing. Silver prices have broken out very nicely after that deal was announced and shares in First Majestic have had a good rally.

My point is that we really have nothing to worry about here with FFMG with regards to any potential deal they make. I'm 100% confident Keith will give his blessings when he feels the best deal has appeared on the table, and before it does, he probably will reject everything else. It might therefore take a while to get a deal announced because we sure won't get one done unless Keith feels the time has come to monetize the assets.

Just as a side note, it really is incredible how resilient gold prices have been lately. I myself expected a significant correction already at 2500-2600. It seems we truly have entered a new paradigm with regards to gold prices.

My thinking is also that we have bottomed out with FFMG and gold stocks in general. I don't think we will see a crash like we had in 08-09 which was a complete liquidity crisis causing almost all asset classes to drop significantly. I think we will see more of a concentrated "AI crash" which will cause the Mag 7 stocks and their like to drop by over 50% or more and also causing a big recession in the aftermath. This is similar to what we had in the early 2000's after the IT bubble burst. Gold stocks bottomed out way before the IT bubble burst and while they did see some temporary drops most rapidly recovered and went on to make new highs.

The big question I still have is what will happen with all the banks who are still holding massive accounting losses on their books from their treasury portfolios. Commercial real estate is also in the toilet right now which might spark something similar we had in 08-09 with MSB products. The difference now is that the Fed will instantly bail out anyone who is in trouble, so we might not end up in a liquidity crisis like we had back then. Things have changed in this regard and we already saw during Covid that the Fed instantly bailed out the corporate bond market. They just won't allow something like 08-09 to happen again if they can stop it.

But they cannot stop the AI bubble from bursting. I think we are right now very close to a massive drop in the Mag 7 stocks which will then scare a lot of investors causing them to start doubting whether the "AI trade" is done. When they see their brokerage accounts showing their beloved Nvidia and Microsoft stocks going down 30-50% they will start panicking and sell out. This is what must happen imo before we can get new money flowing heavily into the commodity sector again.

Gold has been rising very nicely so we are perfectly positioned right now with FFMG when this change in investment sentiment does occur. Volume has been picking up nicely in the stock and I think we could very well start a good rally when the final EA submission is announced and further drill results are revealed from Duparquet.

Well there was that settlement agreement from the winter road issue, but we have no idea what was included in that deal. It might be possible Cat Lake agreed to some sort of preliminary agreement that they would be included in the EA process according to their wishes and in return won't oppose the project any longer. For me personally, no news is good news in this regard. FFMG will still have to sign FN agreements with Cat Lake and maybe others but those will come along the way. With gold at $2700, I think Cat Lake is well aware this project will transform their community for the better in the long run with hundreds of good paying jobs and other economic incentives on the table. New infrastructure, roads etc. will all happen ONLY if this project gets developed. They must be aware of the fact that without Springpole there simply won't be anything else in the future to lift their community out from poverty and misery. I think the Chief is on board here in this regard. It seems to me Dan & Steve have now established a good relationship with Cat Lake and maintained dialogue about everything.

This is what I have been saying. We need a crash in the "Mag 7 " big enough so investors finally realize that trade is over with. As long as people day trade / gamble in AI stocks and make money in that sector they will keep doing that.

I think we will have a similar scenario as in the early 2000's when the IT bubble burst. That finally allowed the investment crowd to seek new avenues for growth and the capital started flowing into commodities and US real estate.

It's not so much that people don't see the gold price going up, the problem is they see AI stocks going up more and that's where the money flows. People always flock to where the "hot action" is. Sort of the same as in a casino the gamblers always try and seek out the "hot table" where to put their money. This is the reality of the sad state of what "investing" has become, it really is just mostly gambling on short term moves. And don't think for a second we are just talking about average retail investors here. Big hedge funds and money managers are chasing short term performance just as much which then exacerbates problem.

This is just the reality we have to live with BUT there is a flip side to this coin. Because most people are so short term oriented, it also then allows patient investors like us with a very long term view to accumulate assets which are currently out of favor, such as the gold sector. The price we have to pay is to be patient because we don't know when the sector will turn. We just know from history that it will. And when it eventually does turn, trust me, it will happen so quick most people will be completely caught off guard. When the "hot money" suddenly starts pouring back in to the junior/development sector you will see many stocks go up 20-50x in a matter of months. I have seen this happen before so I know where this is headed right now with gold approaching 3k per ounce and the sector still in the mud.

They still own almost 4m shares, at least according to bloomberg, so that will be significant if NexGold gets going here at some point. Could be worth tens of millions of dollars in the near future which I'm sure Dan and Keith is well aware of. I don't think they will sell the shares unless they really have to.

Regarding a potential deal, I'm not really sure I can draw any conclusions from Dan's mannerism regarding this. When I think of the past smaller deals we have done along the way I think he acted very much in the same way as always, sort of not giving away too much until something gets announced. But I could be wrong of course. I definitely think there is something going on behind the scenes because Keith said Dan has been talking to different groups about Springpole and they did remove that last interview with Keith which would indicate they don't want to get into any potential trouble for that.

We know Keith is a shark so it is totally possible he has rejected many potential deals already simply because he wants to be greedy with the assets (as he should).

Also, it might very well be that Keith has already decided these assets will be developed in house so we might be in a situation where they will wait for the EA permit and then Keith will start arranging debt financing to develop the entire thing on their own. Sure, it will be a lot of money to borrow BUT Keith might very well pull this off simply because if the gold price keeps rising and the economics keep improving then Springpole will be a total cashflow monster. In such a scenario, it's not impossible at all to get a consortium of banks together to debt finance most of the construction for a permitted project. It's really just a matter of simple math. You could even get some bigger investors (people such as Sprott & Giustra etc.) or even First Majestic coming in to finance a portion of the projects as well.

I think we should still keep our minds wide open about what might happen here because there are literally hundreds of different routes we might take, The best option after all - still - would be for us to find a way to transform the company into a real miner and develop the assets for ourselves.

Nice! I was sort of expecting him to make a bigger purchase since there were so many months of no buying.

There could be a lot of reasons, but I think NexGold just seemed to want to focus on getting near term production assets up and going. Nothing wrong with that either. I think they could have gotten a good deal done with FFMG because the cash flow from Goliath could have been used to finance Springpole and get that smaller operation going at Duparquet. Over a couple of years, I think this combined company could have been on a good path to become a 500k+ oz. producer which would then most likely have been acquired by a major. Maybe they were in talks but could not come to an agreement. Anyways, no need to speculate about that any longer since it did not happen. We should look forward.

What I think is most likely the path forward right now is to find a mid/large-tier producer to form a JV on Springpole. The bigger company should basically buy a 40-50% stake and then take on all the financing and construction risk with the option to purchase the entire project at a later date when certain milestones have been achieved. Duparquet should be kept "in house" as long as possible unless we could team up with another company to start smaller, also a JV here could make sense.

Anyways, we know Keith definitely is thinking big here and long term so whenever they do decide to pull the trigger on a deal we should be confident it is the best deal we can get. I am quite certain that without Keith in the background, FFMG would have most likely ended up in a lackluster deal. I think Keith is being very greedy with these assets (as he should) so most likely he has been saying "No" to a lot of offers they have received. It might be tricky for Dan to be CEO since I think he has to sort of "get permission" from Keith whenever a reasonable deal gets presented. There might have been situations where Dan would have been ready to sign a deal but maybe Keith said no in the end.

There have been two recent interviews with Dan and we still seem to be on track to submit the Final EA this month. Getting closer and closer now guys, so after we get that submitted we are finally entering this "deal making phase" for real. Sure, there is still a lot of work going back and forth with the EA and checking all the boxes but this is a very formal process. Hang in there guys!

Yes, I think a JV deal is now more or less guaranteed at least with Springpole. Sure there could still be other candidates out there that might do a share merger, but more likely than not we will see a JV deal similar to what Osisko had. Could still turn out great with a JV deal no doubt. I still think the worst possible outcome for us would be for the company to be bought out for 500m or so in an all cash deal.

Well I guess we can forget about the NexGold merger. They just announced they will combine with Signal Gold.

https://nexgold.com/nexgold-and-signal-gold-announce-merger-to-create-one-of-canadas-most-advanced-near-term-gold-developers-with-a-combined-4-7-million-gold-ounces-of-measured-and-indicated-resources-and-a/

I think they could raise the money themselves through a syndicate of banks just loaning the money needed. If you look at the Goliath upfront capital costs it was estimated at only $335m. That really is nothing when you get three banks each loaning a 100m or so. Keith / Frank / Giustra would provide massive credibility for the financing along with the current NexGold management which would take over the mine building operations. I think they could just ask for the money from the banks and they would get it no problem. That is why I am so excited about this because there really is a very clear path forward after they get Goliath up and running. The cash flows from Goliath could then be directed towards financing Springpoles construction along with Duparquet. Sure, they might have to issue some shares at this point but I don't think it would be that significant given the rich cash flow profile of Goliath.

They are projecting annual free cash flow of 100m or so from Goliath so you can see they would not need that many years to pool up a significant amount of cash that could be used towards Springpole. If the gold price keeps rising, the free cash flow could even be closer to 150-200m annually. This could get really big quite fast. Duparquet could also get up and running with a smaller operation which could then also be used to get even more cash flow towards Springpole.

The more you think about this potential merger the more it makes sense. If we really want to score a potential 20 bagger long term then this is how I would do it because this would be the fastest way by far to transform us into an actual miner. Sure, it is still also possible we could choose to do a JV 50/50 with a major for Springpole. The impact of this would probably be quicker on the share price BUT I think the long term gains would not be as significant.

A JV deal I think would net us 5-10x long term while the NexGold merger would probably result in a 10-20 bagger long term.

Dan has exercised 754 168 rights resulting in the same amount of common shares as of October 3rd. No mention of price. Always nice to see him increase his position.

This is what I have been thinking is very likely to happen. I would definitely not be surprised by a NexGold / FFMG merger. The reason Lekstrom probably does not mention FFMG in any interview is exactly because he does not want to get into trouble for speaking about it if a deal would be announced. If he actually mentioned FFMG then I think that could be a redflag we are not in talks. This could also indeed be the reason they took away that interview with Keith and Paul because they don't want to make it look like Keith revealed too much, although I don't think he said anything that specific. If they indeed are in talks with NexGold then I could not be more happy about it.

Like I said earlier, we would receive the Goliath project which is close to starting operations in a year or two which would then bring in significant cash flows for the combined company. NexGold shareholders in turn would receive two new fantastic tier 1 assets in similar regions to Goliath. Both Springpole and Duparquet could then be developed with cash flows from Goliath. The NexGold mine building team would be absolutely perfect going forward, with Keith / Frank / Sprott in the background as financiers and advisors. I'm telling you guys this merger, if done, would be a total game changer and would potentially turn us very quickly into an actual miner with very significant assets in the portfolio.

What I like most is that this combined company would then most certainly be a very hot target for the bigger gold companies to acquire seeing as the portfolio would include three massive operations and produce north of 500k ounces per year. This could all happen by 2030 mind you, seeing as Springpole would get permits in a year or so and put into production a few years after that and Duparquet could start out smaller and expand from there. Goliath should be in production by 2026-27. The synergies here with the management and combined assets is so obvious I would be shocked if they at least had not tried to merge the two companies. The share price in both companies is also very depressed so it's not like either one would lose out in any major way. It's really a win / win here.

I noticed the same. Might indicate we are very close to a deal announcement. We still have not seen any insider buys or sells for months which tells me something is up. Especially when you consider the recent successful financing round where the underwriting banks all immediately exercised their option for additional units. They would not do this unless they knew there would be demand for the shares. The private placement should follow soon which we all know is more or less certain Keith is participating in. I think he once again bought 10m shares or something like this.

My guess is this was the last financing round we did and now we are finalizing the announcement of a deal and the final EA submission. Both should be huge potential triggers for the share price. My hope is still that they would announce a merger with NexGold. That would be a total game changer imo and would turn us into a potentially massive gold miner in the future.

I think the full 8m they raised included the 15% option exercised by the underwrites. In other words, there was good demand for the offering because the underwriters exercised the option right away. This is a good sign for us. The private placement should bring in another 5m or so.

I have been expecting a major correction in the gold price for some time now. I think we are definitely due for one in the near future after such a strong upwards move. What has been surprising is that gold is still going so strong even though it would seem to be over bought short term. Central bank demand seem to be the primary driver right now, so the price might not be that big of a factor for them. If they decide to increase their gold holdings then they buy at whatever the price is.

What I think is important for us as FFMG investors is to understand that we don't really need the gold price to rise to make our assets more attractive. Springpole and Duparquet are very cash flow rich assets at a 2000$ gold price. We have an incredible margin of safety right now with the gold price at 2600-2700$ levels. Even if the gold price had a massive correction back to 2000$ or so (over 20%) then it would not really matter for FFMG's assets. Sure, if the gold price keeps on rising then of course our assets are growing more valuable by the day, but the gold price right now is basically irrelevant for FFMG. It's more of a driver for the entire sector.

What we need share price wise is the permit for Springpole, the new updated PEA for Duparquet, and most importantly, we need a good deal now after all of the hard work has been done!! We have a fantastic deck of cards with our assets in the current shortage of new gold discoveries and the rising gold price. I would be very disappointed if Dan messed this up for us now with a bad deal, but I know that won't happen because Keith won't approve a bad deal.

I think the fact that we had such a long pause in insider buying and now a strong financing round with several underwriters and also a PP would indicate we are closing in on a major announcement. The final submission for the EA is of course a big catalyst industry wise, but I think it's possible many insiders (Keith's inner circle) loaded up on cheap shares now for the final time. I would be very surprised if we don't get a deal announced before we receive the final EA permit next year or so. The bigger miners know 100% what it means to submit a final EA. It basically means you will get the permit, you only need to go through the final loops and "check the boxes" in a very formal process.

Even though the share price performance has been a massive disappointment for all of us, I think we can definitely be proud that we have finally reached this final phase. The permitting phase is the most boring phase you could possibly think of investor wise. Now we are finally entering the "deal making phase" so to speak.

Keep holding / adding guys! Trust me, we will get rewarded soon for our patience.

The synergy would come from the combined assets in the new company. FFMG shareholders would benefit from a new near term producing gold asset and NexGold shareholders would benefit from two new world class gold assets. The cash flow from Goliath could then be used to partly finance the development and construction of Springpole and Duparquet. The combined company would also benefit from the current NexGold Chairman & CEO who are both proven mine builders with excellent track records. Finally, the backing of Frank / Keith / Sprott would be a very nice and credible owner base for the company going forward as all three would definitely look to develop the company into a long term major gold miners. I think this is a no brainer deal for both companies if they could get it done, but time will tell.

Just adding that this would of course all depend upon how Frank and Keith could come to terms on a potential deal. Like you said, both definitely have big egos and there is also Sprott involved with 10%. Sprott already did a major deal with Keith with First Majestic when they bought Jerrit Canyon and Sprott is still a minor shareholder in First Majestic, so him and Keith definitely are on good terms. This is what excites me the most about this potential merger because I know Keith and Sprott are friends and probably talk every now and then about business and what's happening in the sector. If I can come up with this idea then I cannot see how Keith / Frank / Sprott or even Dan would not have thought about is as well since the synergies are so obvious.

Even if they had something bad between them (I don't think they do) they would still have to recognize a good opportunity when it shows up. Both guys are smart as hell so it would be silly to discard a potentially massive opportunity to create a big new gold miner just because they don't like each other. Both guys would have millions invested in the combined company, so I think they would certainly be able to work something out here. Neither Frank or Keith would be interested to run the day to day operations anyway, so there would not be any clashes here. I think they would just do whatever makes the most money for themselves and their shareholders.

I really hope we are having discussions with NexGold right now (among others) because the more I think about this potential merger the more it makes sense. Both companies are basically suffering in the same exact environment with depressed shares so there definitely should not be any hostilities from either shareholder base. I know I would support a merger either way even though I am a big shareholder in FFMG. I think NexGold shareholders would benefit enormously from the merger as well.

I read the latest investor presentation on NexGold Mining and it seems Frank currently owns about 10% right now. I also noticed Sprott in there owning another 9-10% or so, so NexGold definitely has some major guys backing their progress.

What I think NexGold is severely lacking is any new good projects in their pipeline after they get Goliath into production. Springpole and Duparquet would be fantastic assets to get on the same platform as the Goliath-Gold Complex because the synergies would be so obvious. All assets would fit nicely under the First Mining Gold umbrella and the funds from Goliath could then be very nicely used to develop Springpole and Duparquet into production. All of a sudden you could be looking at a new major gold miner producing in excess of 500k ounces a year before 2030.

It gets even better than that. This combined company would most definitely then be a "hot target" for any bigger player in the space simply due to it owning the most significant newly permitted assets. I really think a merger with NexGold could be the best outcome for us at this point. Like you also said Frank should be very interested in merging with FFMG in an all share deal because both companies suffer greatly right now due to the lacking market sentiment. But under the same umbrella, these fantastic gold assets + the backing of Keith / Frank / Sprott should be such big news I cannot see how the market would not see how massive this could become.

All of this is pure speculation of course on my part and in the end we will get the deal Keith thinks is the best for the company. We are probably talking with many different groups right now like Keith said in that interview which of course is good news in the sense that we have many interested parties generating competitive tension. But I cannot see how Dan & Keith would not have at least discussed this NexGold option if there was any chance of it happening.

Just a random idea that crossed my mind when reading about the latest developments at NexGold Mining. NexGold has clearly stated as one of their objectives to become the next mid-tier producer in Canada by evaluating more potential acquisitions. They are now on a very clear path to become a producing miner in the next 2-3 years or so since they are already fully permitted with the Goliath-Gold complex and they have solid financing from Frank Giustra and other investors.

Since FFMG already is a major shareholder in NexGold, would it be completely out of the question to maybe merge these two companies at some point? I know this might seem odd but hear me out on this. I would love to get your opinions on this since I think this could potentially be a very good move for us.

We know for sure Keith especially would more than likely want to develop the assets for himself so this could potentially provide a very good path for a future gold company Like I said, NexGold will start mining the Goliath-Gold complex during 2026-2027, so if they decided to merge with FFMG not only could we see a clear path for revenues, but we could then use this merged platform to potentially create a very large gold mining company in a few years time. FFMG already owns a part of NexGold and both companies shares are very depressed right now which would make it easier to make a case for a combined company.

The revenues from the Goliath Gold Complex could then be used (in part) to finance both development at Springpole as well as Duparquet. You get permits for Springpole and maybe get that smaller operation going at Duparquet and suddenly we could be looking at a very significant gold mining company in the making. I know for sure Frank Giustra is a guy who likes to think big on deals like this and since Keith is also known for building his companies through M&A then I cannot see how these guys could not have at least thought about merging the two companies. I have no idea on what terms Keith & Frank are personally, I really hope they don't have any "beef" between them or anything like that, but I think both of them will recognize a good deal when they see one.

The combined company could also be a much better "sell" to the bigger investment community when the sentiment eventually turns. Having both Frank & Keith as financial backers in the combined company could provide superior credibility going forward when we are looking to get financing for the mining operations. I really think this could be a potential deal in the making here and FFMG being already an owner in NexGold would make it a natural move so to speak.

A deal like this would also most likely release us from this "pressure" to find a bigger partner on the Springpole project. We could then completely focus all the energies and money of the combined company on getting Goliath up and running and then direct those funds towards Springpole and Duparquet. I really don't see any pitfalls for a plan like this. Another "positive" for many of you guys would be that Dan would most likely be let loose. I cannot see how he would have any role in the combined company, other than maybe as a M&A director or something like that. This deal would really transform us into becoming a real mid tier miner with significant assets for the future. I really would love this deal to be announced.

NexGold has a superb Chairman (Ex-President of Barrick / DeBeers) and CEO (35 years of mine building experience) as far as I am concerned and both would be perfect for the combined company. Keith and Frank would stay as financiers and advisors in the background which would also just be perfect. Keith is so busy with First Majestic anyways so he really can't have that active of an role in FFMG other than guiding the company behind the scenes and providing M&A advice.

Like I said, both companies have very depressed shares, so it's not like shareholders in either one would lose out here in any way. NexGold would benefit enormously from getting two world class projects with clear paths forward and FFMG would benefit from getting another great permitted gold asset with near term revenues. I really think this deal is actually quite a no-brainer and could be incredible if it could be done on good terms. Let me know what you guys think about this,

I indeed have noticed this. Gold has been so "hated" for so long it's as if almost nobody dares to mention it now that it has indeed risen spectacularly in the last decade. The major banks are indeed quite bullish on gold with lots of of them predicting 3k$ gold in the near future, so it's not as if the banks are against gold rising.

The problem as I see it is that the "general investment community" is still so focused and drunk on this AI bubble they really cannot see any other opportunities yet. We must have a big enough correction in the AI stocks so that the majority of investors understand that trade is over with. Right now, we are sort of in a twilight zone where people are starting to get skeptical if AI will deliver the ROI that has been promised (spoiler alert: it won't). But people are still long this stuff.

When we eventually get that big correction for whatever reason then people will start to look for new trades to go long and that is where commodities and precious metals especially will start to shine. This is exactly what happened back in the early 2000's when the IT bubble burst and investors were suddenly hit with horrible losses and were left out without any major investment themes. It was exactly from this macro setup we got one of the greatest commodity bull markets started. I see sort of the same happening now, but we really need to get a big crash in the AI stocks first.

Keep in mind that back then, gold stocks had already started their bull market during the IT crash, so we might very well get the same happening now. When investors will see their beloved "Mag 7" stocks in the reds while also seeing that gold stocks are outperforming everything else then that is when they will start to aggressively chase performance. I think it is very probable we will get a scenario like this. This will be a repeat of 2000-2010/11 only this time it will be on steroids due to all the money printing done during covid. The dollar, at some point, will start to weaken massively due to the FED's upcoming reaction to the AI crash. The dollar will not become worthless or anything like this, it will just weaken massively against gold and other major currencies.

I actually thought about this, but I'm not really sure about what the insider trading rules state about insiders participating in a financing round if the company is also negotiating a bigger deal behind the scenes?

Because I cannot see how it would be illegal for a publicly traded company to raise money from insiders even if a deal was in the works. If a company needs money then it has to be allowed to raise money in an offering. What if a deal negotiation took over a year and the company was running short on cash? Should the company go bankrupt simply because it could not accept money from insiders? This really makes no sense at all and I think it is allowed for insiders to participate in financing offerings even when a deal is in the works. Otherwise you could end up in very problematic situations and companies like FFMG could very well fail if they were unable to raise money anywhere else.

Buying stock on the open markets is a different situation all together and of course should be restricted for insiders if they are sitting on information not available to other investors. We STILL have not seen a single insider buy / sell on the registry which again could indicate something is up because that type of insider activity would of course be insider trading.

So here is just another thought that struck me with this latest financing round and lack of insider activity in the last 3-4 months. What if all of the insiders participated heavily (Keith especially) in this latest offering because they knew this would probably be the last time they had any chance of getting more stock before a deal would be announced? The shares were underwritten by the two investment banks who then probably sold lots of shares to their private clients whom most likely also figured out this could be a very good entry point.

Pure speculation of course on my part, but the lack of insider buying / selling is really making me think something is up. Keith has consistently said he will be in the markets buying up stock. So why hasn't he done it in the last months or so? I mean no insider has sold either thank god, which would be a very alarming fact if that were to happen.

It all just feels so weird to me right now with the heavy volume days right up until the latest offering was made public, and now lots of shares traded hands in one day when you look at both exchanges. I just have a feeling something is up and I mean that in a good way. The fact that FFMG is able to raise money so easily every time makes me think somebody knows something here. Yes, we have been issuing a hell of a lot of shares to get where we all today, but Keith seems as calm as ever in every interview I have seen. It's like he just knows we will get these two mines up and running and the end will justify the means so to speak. I sure like his confidence because without Keith behind the scenes I would have not invested. My sole reason for investing from the beginning was to participate in Keith's vision. Time will tell if that turned out to be a wise decision or not, but at least in First Majestic I ended up making a killing.

As far as I can tell it was mostly retail who was selling. The other question is of course who was buying? Usually during bottoms the shares move from weak hands into strong hands so my guess would be the "smart money" so to speak was buying heavily here. I know I would have bought heavily today if I only had the funds available, but right now I don't. Because the only reason anyone would buy at this point of peak negative sentiment would be that they still believe in the company and think the valuation is off. If you really think about this logically then why the hell would any long term bigger shareholder sell now when we are so close to finally achieving the big milestone we all have been waiting for? It would make no sense at all to invest heavily in this company for many years only to sell just before we submit the final EA. It really makes not sense at all, which tells me it was mostly retail investors selling on the news of more financing.

To me it seems Keith & management are now just determined to get this Springpole EA permit done no matter how much it costs. They will issue shares and do financing until we reach that point which is, after all, what they have been trying to achieve since the beginning. Any additional funding will of course also be used to further drill out and scope the Duparquet deposit for the updated PEA.

I think this story will unfold exactly as First Majestic some 20 years ago. I remember very well how all of a sudden the share price skyrocketed in a years time and suddenly everyone seemed completely happy and fine with everything. This was after many years of completely miserable performance where the stock basically went down or was flat and nothing seemed to help the stock. The problem is that you just don't know when it will happen. It is very possible the stock might suddenly catch a bid even without any significant news. We might submit the final EA and maybe nothing happens with the stock, and then maybe a few months after that one day it suddenly rises several fold. It is impossible to predict these things.

What if we don't have any interest in the other assets right now? You cannot sell something which no one wants to buy unless you let it go at firesale prices which is also a stupid idea. I think we can all agree management for sure is considering all financing options all the time. If there was a reasonable way of monetizing the portfolio then I'm sure they would have done it.

After all, Keith owns 30m shares and Dan still owns 10m shares himself. I don't think they want to "dilute" their existing holdings for nothing tangible in return. Did people forget Dan has put almost 2m of real cash into this company? He stated in a personal conversation with me he has a significant portion of his family's entire net worth in the company stock. Keith has also participated in all financing rounds and bought a significant amount of shares on the open market. You think he wants to be "diluted" by the company any more than we do? Both Dan & Keith have not sold a single share as of today. I can show you several companies where management got all of their stock through option grants and sold all of their holdings as soon as they got hold of them. I don't think we could have a more committed Chairman & CEO in FFMG, but maybe that's just me.

Maybe I'm just getting old or whatever, but I don't really feel the company has done anything wrong since the IPO. I think we have been trough an awfully long bear market which has depleted most investors emotionally and that is understandable. I still believe in what Keith & Dan is trying to achieve here and I myself see a fantastic future for the company. Sure, if the sentiment in the market for miners would have been fantastic the last 10 years this company would probably already have been bought out for a billion dollars plus. But the market seldom behaves in the way that you think it will. Sometimes you get lucky on the timing and sometimes you don't. What is important is that the company progresses on it's goals. The share price will eventually catch up to reality as long as the company makes meaningful progress. And I think we can all agree that FFMG has made substantial progress from what it was back in 2015-16. If the share price turns out to be between 1-2 (CAD) dollars in a year or two for whatever reason, then all of a sudden people will forget it took 10 years of hard work to get there. It's funny how that works out sometimes.

It is possible that I have been wrong this entire time and the company will end up failing, but that is a risk I am willing to assume. I lose no sleep with my position in FFMG other than maybe being too excited at times about it's future.

I think the entire word "dilution" is so stupid because most people really don't get what it means. A better term is "raising money". Dilution only occurs if the money being raised is completely wasted and you have nothing to show for it. If you are a mining company and raise 10 million dollars through equity and drill out a deposit with excellent results then you cannot say that is dilution because there was something of value which was surfaced. Whether the market recognizes that value is another question, but the fact of the matter is that unless you have revenues then your only way of progressing as a company is through equity or debt financing. It really makes no difference whether you are a mining company or a tech start up. I don't get why investors get so mad when a company like FFMG announces new rounds of financing even though Dan has made it very clear that further financing rounds was to be expected to get us to the finish line. It's not like we can advance our assets without money. People just automatically assume that just because a company is issuing shares then it must mean they are getting screwed somehow. It all depends upon what the company is raising the money for and how they use it. FFMG has done - at least according to me - a very good job of using the money (and the portfolio) to advance Springpole and Duparquet.

People also need to keep in mind that the current bear market has been one of the most brutal ones the industry has ever seen. Many similar juniors / developers have gone bankrupt during this period because they could not raise any money. Go look around for some other companies in this space and you will see they are basically done because they are left without any money and they are just sitting on the assets. FFMG seems to have a very loyal investor base because they seem to be able to raise 10m dollars quite easily in almost every financing round. This is something we need to be very happy about because it has meant FFMG has been able to advance its assets in a very harsh environment. It's no like this period has been a walk in the park for any company in this sector. Having said all of this, I think we are now well set funding wise to reach our final destination of final EA permits by year end 2025.

I get the idea that people think us having a billion shares outstanding was a horrible price to pay as shareholders. But what would have been the alternative? The company would be in a very awful position right now had management not been able to raise any money and the EA process would still be in it's infancy compared to where we are today. Imagine if we had not made any progress. It would really suck to still be 5-7 years away in the permitting process when gold is hitting all time highs every day. The sad fact is that you cannot skip the EA process no matter what. Springpole is so far advanced right now, I mean we almost have the EA permit in our hands guys. I think it is nothing short of amazing we have been able to even survive this bear market yet alone advance Springpole to the finish line during all this negativity and horrible market conditions for miners.

In the end, I don't see the shares outstanding as a problem as long as we reach the permits and get deals done. I will keep adding shares as long as I can because I am committed to see this story to the end.

Ultimately, we just have to trust in Keith getting the best deal for us. I also noted Dan spoke of the JV option for Springpole and this is what I also envision right now for us.

Ideally, we should get a mid/major producer to partner with us and buy a meaningful interest in the Springpole project at some point or at the latest when we have the final EA permits. I would like to see them buy say 30-50% in a JV for something like 400-600m where they have the option to buy the rest of the project at a later date if certain conditions apply. This deal should include the partner to take on all of the construction and financing risk in getting Springpole into production. This would be the most attractive option for Springpole as I see it because our job really has been to get the permits in place and then negotiate a good JV for FFMG shareholders. If we can get this done, then we can basically sit back and enjoy the rest of the ride until our partner buys us out completely in a few years or around 2030 or so. A deal like this could probably net us between 1-2B (USD) when all is said and done. If gold just keeps rising over 3k (after a major correction at some point) this is a very probable outcome for us for Springpole.

Now, that's just the scenario for Springpole mind you. Duparquet should be ideally drilled out and redefined in the upcoming PEA next year to include the starter pit and the recent drilling results. Hopefully, we can show somewhere between 8-10m+ ounces in the project in the updated PEA along with a NPV north of a billion dollars (USD). Dan said he thinks most investors will be very surprised how robust the economics will be in the updated PEA This is a project that I would ideally like for us to stay "in house" for as long as possible. Maybe we indeed are able to start small here for ourselves since the initial capital required for this is quite low in the bigger picture. But a partner here would work as well, maybe ideally First Majestic although they have so much on their hands right now I would not count on them. But you never know with Keith.. dude is making deals all the time it seems.

What I would really like to see also right now would be for us to monetize Cameron in some way, I really don't care if we can't get a very good deal on that since that asset is basically just a burden for us. Getting that project sold for maybe some tens of millions would really come in handy right now when we are preparing Springpole and Duparquet for the future. We also still have a 30% interest in Pickle Crow which is still quite a sizable and valuable project. If we can get lucky, then maybe Firefly Metals might sell that project for 100m dolalrs+ which would also net us a nice chunk of cash from a non-strategic asset. We really should be letting go of these interests since the big money makers will be Springpole and Duparquet.

I think they are looking at Springpole very much. What I think at least some of them are also waiting for is to see the final EA submission just to have confirmation that the formal clock has started ticking so to speak. Some of them might also be waiting for FFMG to get community agreements in place. Could be a lot of reasons but make no mistake, this project for sure is on the radars of the majors simply because there is no other similar project as far advanced in the EA process.

Like Keith said in the last interview you basically already know the EA permit will be granted. He said there really is no case that he knows of where an EA has been filed but not granted because you basically already know when you file an EA that the government is on "your side" so to speak. There really would be no point in going through an awful lot of work just to sort of gamble on getting the EA approval in the end. The government/ministry will let you know quite early if there are any red flags and FFMG has already answered all of the questions. It's basically just going through the loops now and checking all the boxes in the formal process until we get the final permits.

I would be shocked if we don't see any major deals or moves announced by year end 2025. I just cannot see a scenario where we are sitting with a fully permitted Springpole worth billions with current gold prices and our market cap still being in the 100-200m(CAD) range. This just can't happen by any logic.

Dan said they will release an updated PEA for Duparquet during Q1 next year which will incorporate the "starting small" scenario. He spoke quite well of this in the last two interviews saying it will surprise most investors how robust that operation will be, so I'm quite excited about that as well.

Gold just keeps making new highs now every day which means our portfolio grows more valuable by the day. At some point these insane valuation discrepancies must close between the juniors/developers and the gold price.

This was a very nice interview with Keith & Paul. I would especially tell you to pay attention to what Keith said about submitting the EA. He said there really is no way you submit an EA without basically knowing you will get the permit and FFMG has already answered almost every single question. Trust me guys, we will get the EA permit. The regional government is probably drooling to get this mine up and running so it can start producing jobs and tax revenues. Even Cat Lake must be getting quite excited because they can really change their community for the better here. They really cannot blow this opportunity, no no they will get on board. We are getting closer and closer to the payoff. I can feel it.

Nice volume btw today again on the Canadian exchange.