With gold breaking to new highs, there is something of a “boats and tides” effect on the sector as stocks across the market cap spectrum rally with the underlying metal. But where there are thousands of junior gold plays touting the potential of their early-stage projects, few of which will ever become mines, there is real scarcity value for those investors seeking exposure to buildable, large-scale projects in top-tier jurisdictions. First Mining Gold (TSX: FF; OTCQX: FFMGF) fits this latter category nicely as the owners of two of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Canada, with Springpole in Ontario moving through an advanced federal - provincial permitting process, and Duparquet in Québec’s Abitibi providing a second, meaningful source of optionality and upside.

What makes First Mining interesting today is the combination of scale, jurisdiction, and timing. Springpole’s ~800 hectares, located 110 km northeast of Red Lake in the Birch-Uchi Greenstone Belt, are home to a ~5 million ounce resource capable of producing average annual gold production of 330koz over the first five years[1]. Duparquet, situated ~50 km northwest of Rouyn-Noranda on the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone in the Abitibi region of Quebec, weighs in at a similar scale with 3.4 million ounces of gold in the Indicated Mineral Resource and 2.6 million ounces of gold in the Inferred Mineral Resource category[2].

In his recent interview with Mining Hub, CEO Dan Wilton framed Springpole as one of the next major Canadian projects positioned to receive an Environmental Assessment (EA) decision - targeted for Q2 2026 - which would put it in a small cohort of projects that can plausibly transition into a shovel-ready decision on a pre-2030 timeline. As Wilton see things, “There's maybe only two other large gold projects in Canada that could achieve that same kind of timeframe, getting shovels in the ground before 2030. And at that point, I think it becomes a really attractive project for the market to finance, for us to build the construction team, raise the capital to build it or potentially to partner with another mining company and bring in a partner on the project to finance it and move it forward through that construction phase.”

EA approval would represent an important milestone for the First Mining story; in some sense it would mark the end of the beginning for the project. Getting to this stage required years of groundwork – gathering baseline data, engineering, and funding support to help nearby Indigenous communities build capacity and evaluate the project - culminating in the submission of a ~15,000-page Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Assessment package at the end of 2024. If Springpole clears the EA hurdle, Wilton suggests it’s roughly another ~18 months post-EA to advance through that stage, with the ambition of a feasibility study by the end of 2026 and a development decision in the late-2027/early-2028 window.

It is not as if the market hasn’t noticed First Mining Gold's upside potential - the shares have rallied almost 5X over the past year and were added to the OTCQX Top 50 companies list for 2025. Though past performance is not indicative of future returns, in Wilton’s opinion, there remains significant upside with a rising gold price: "In terms of leverage to the gold price, it's one of the things that these large projects really give investors. So, between Springpole and Duparquet, every US$100/oz move in gold adds ~US$230 million of after-tax NPV.” But Wilton’s argument is that even after a good year, the company is still priced like the market doesn’t fully appreciate the potential yet. And on a NAV basis, he argues the stock trades closer to ~0.2x where comparable developers might trade ~0.5–0.7x. In Wilton’s view, the rerating potential is obvious.

While the market waits for the EA approval, First Mining continues to work towards agreements with the local indigenous communities. Earlier this month the company announced an updated socio-economic analysis for Springpole which, according to First Mining, demonstrated the project’s potential to “generate billions of dollars in government revenue, deliver hundreds of jobs and careers in the local region, provide significant contracting opportunities for regional and Indigenous businesses and add billions of dollars to the gross domestic product at a critical time for the Ontario and Canadian economy.”

Near term, the First Mining story is not about adding ounces – though that remains a possibility too – but about moving past the EA approval process at Springpole to the next stage of development. Wilton noted that, for years, “the investing world said you’ll never be able to permit this project,” and argues the EA decision and community agreements are the hurdles to clear to address this concern. After a strong 12-month performance and against the backdrop of a bullish gold tape, First Mining is well positioned to continue executing in 2026 as scale, jurisdiction and timing begin to align. 

[1] “Springpole Gold Project NI 43-101 Technical Report and Pre-Feasibility Study, Ontario, Canada ” dated December 19, 2025, prepared for First Mining by Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC and available under First Mining’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

[2] NI 43-101 Technical Report: Preliminary Economic Assessment, Duparquet Gold Project, Quebec, Canada” dated October 20, 2023, prepared for First Mining by G Mining Services Inc. and available under First Mining’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.