Thanks that was an interesting take on our situation. What really came to my mind here is again the potential starter pit operation at Duparquet and how that could start near term cash flows for the company. Again, I am not at all sure about the overall math here but still quite confident this starter pit operation could produce in excess of 10 million in annual profits at current gold prices. This in of itself would be a huge catalyst for the share price because essentially it would turn us into a producer, a small one for sure, but still a producer!
I also watched another recent interview with this same gentleman Lobo Tiggre and he is actually very bearish on the future of Mexican mining. Dude is half Mexican himself and has lots of contacts there so I would take his views quite seriously. When you think about this it also explains quite a bit why Keith suddenly bought Jerritt Canyon, a gold mine, even though First Majestic is a silver mining company. Keith has been sort of quietly saying in recent interviews that First Majestic is now actively looking for other projects in USA and Canada.
I can definitely now see the writing on the wall where this is likely to go because geopolitical risks in mining will be a very big thing going forward. Just look at what happened also to that copper deposit in Panama which they just shut down. When the majors/mid-tiers are looking at future gold deposits to acquire, I can almost assure you they are now taking the question of jurisdiction very seriously. As far as I know, miners (and also investors) used to care much more about technical risk than jurisdiction risk, but this might flip now so that they are more willing to take technical risk for the benefit of having the deposit in a safe jurisdiction i.e. USA or Canada.
First Mining sits on two of the best undeveloped Tier 1 gold assets in the world and they are both in what is right now probably the best and safest mining jurisdiction on the planet. Springpole is almost permitted and Duparquet has a potential near term starter pit operation in the cards.
I really think there is close to a zero chance that very soon a major won't snap up these assets or form JVs with FFMG simply because I don't think they can afford to miss out. I think they must be willing to take some permitting risk in Ontario for the benefit of getting to develop these billion dollar assets with future gold prices.
Regarding First Majestic, I can now definitely see Keith looking to make a major move here simply because I think he feels the Mexican operations First Majestic has going there might be in great danger going forward. I really don't think the Mexican government will nationalize the assets, they will just make it more or less impossible to permit new silver mines. This would mean that First Majestic could benefit enormously from a silver supply crunch and get huge cash flows in the next few years which they could then use to acquire assets in USA and Canada. Like I said, Keith has stated in recent interviews the future of First Majestic is outside of Mexico. I used to be a shareholder in First Majestic as well but I would definitely be worried right now with Mexico and it would be perfectly fine for me to expand more into gold which is much more stable in pricing. I think this is what Keith is trying to communicate to his board and shareholders as well.
The best possible outcome - and also what I would do in Dan's situation - would be to try and propose a JV with First Majestic to start developing Duparquet as a starter pit. Keith & Dan know each other so well at this point I mean it's almost guaranteed they must have discussed this possibility? This would really be the best possible catalyst I think for the share price. Then we could wait for Springpole to get its final permits and community agreements in place while we are collecting good cash flow from Duparquet and also start advancing that project further. When Springpole gets its permits that would then send the stock price in the the stratosphere I think.
Also I recommend to watch how Keith is talking about these assets in all of his interviews. It really feels to me he is very protective and greedy with these deposits (and for good reason) so he will for sure fight to his last breath to get the best possible deal here for FFMG. I think he really likes to be in control of these so that is why I'm betting quite hard on First Majestic eventually acquiring at least one of these deposits or forming a JV or even buying the entire company outright if the Mexican situation gets really bad. Right now the entire gold/silver mining industry is in a "fight & die" situation so you need to make bold moves and you need to make them soon if you are going to survive.
