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Home > First Mining Gold > Articles > Springpole Project
First Mining Gold

Springpole Project

Aug 6, 2020

Location: 110 km northeast of the town of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada
Area: 41,943 hectares
Metals: Gold
 
On November 13, 2015, First Mining completed the acquisition of Gold Canyon Resources Inc., which wholly owned the Springpole Gold Project. Springpole is one of Canada's largest undeveloped gold projects with the project covering a land position totaling 41,943 hectares. The project is located in northwestern Ontario, approximately 110 kilometres northeast of the town of Red Lake, and is situated within the Birch-Uchi Greenstone Belt.
 
 
Project Highlights:
 
  • Large open-pittable resources:
  • Indicated Resource: 139.1 Mt at 1.04 g/t Au, 5.4 g/t Ag, containing 4,670,000 ounces of gold and 24,190,000 ounces of silver
  • Inferred Resource: 11.4 Mt at 0.63 g/t Au, 3.1 g/t Ag, containing 230,000 ounces of gold and 1,120,000 ounces of silver
  • Significant infrastructure in-place or proximal to project: 72-man camp onsite, winter road access, logging road within 10 km, and power lines nearby
  • Project is located in a pro-mining jurisdiction within Treaty Nine and Treaty Three First Nations Agreement lands
  • Positive Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") completed in 2019
 
2019 PEA Highlights(1):
 
The PEA contemplates an open pit mine and milling operation, evaluating recovery of gold and silver from a 36,000 tonne-per-day operation, with a process plant that includes crushing, grinding, flotation, with fine grinding of the flotation concentrate and agitated leaching of both the flotation concentrate and the flotation tails followed by a carbon-in-pulp recovery process to produce doré bullion. Key PEA highlights include: 
 
  • $1.23 billion pre-tax NPV5%
  • $841 million after-tax NPV5%
  • 26% pre-tax IRR, 22% after-tax IRR
  • Mine life of 12 years with a 2.5-year pre-production period
  • Average annual gold production in years 2 through 9 of 410,000 ounces gold and 2.4 million ounces silver; 3.9 million ounces gold and 22 million ounces silver recovered over the life of mine ("LOM")
  • Low LOM strip ratio of 2.1 to 1 with a LOM mill grade of 1.0 g/t gold and 5.3 g/t silver
  • LOM overall metal recoveries of 88% for gold and 93% for silver
  • LOM direct operating cash costs(2) estimated at $575/oz of gold equivalent ($514/oz of gold on a by-product basis)
  • LOM all-in sustaining costs (AISC)(3) estimated at $611/oz of gold equivalent ($552/oz of gold on a by-product basis)
  • Initial capital costs estimated at $809 million, using an owner-operating mining scenario
  • LOM sustaining capital costs estimated at $124 million, plus $26 million for closure costs
Note: Base case parameters assume a gold price of $1,300/oz and a silver price of $20/oz (the same prices used in the 2017 PEA), and an exchange rate (C$ to US$) of 0.75. All currencies for the PEA are reported in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified. NPV calculated as of the commencement of construction and excludes all pre-construction costs.
 
1. Based on the technical report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Springpole Gold Project, Ontario, Canada", dated November 5, 2019, which was prepared for First Mining by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. in accordance with NI 43-101 and is available at www.sedar.com under First Mining's SEDAR profile. Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature, it includes Inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
 
2. Cash costs consist of mining costs, processing costs, mine-level G&A, treatment and refining charges and royalties. Cash costs are non-IFRS measures.
 
3. AISC consists of cash costs plus sustaining and closure costs. AISC is a non-IFRS measure.
 
 
Springpole Mineral Resource Estimate for Gold and Silver at Cut-off Grade of 0.4 g/t Au(1)(2)(3)(4)(5):
 
 
1. Based on the technical report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Springpole Gold Project, Ontario, Canada", dated November 5, 2019, which was prepared for First Mining by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. in accordance with NI 43-101 and is available at www.sedar.com under First Mining's SEDAR profile. Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature, it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
 
2. Cut-off grades are based on US$1,400/oz. Au price and Au recoveries of 80%; and a US$15/oz. Ag price and 60% Ag recoveries.
 
3. All composites have been capped where appropriate.
 
4. The rounding of tonnes may result in apparent differences between tonnes, grade and contained ounces.
 
5. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issues.
 
 
Permitting Roadmap
 
First Mining has begun consultation efforts with local Indigenous communities within the Springpole Gold Project area to support the federal Environmental Assessment (EA) process which was initiated in March 2018. These consultation efforts with Indigenous communities will be ongoing throughout the EA process, including consultation with local municipalities, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders.
 
In parallel with the federal EA process, First Mining has also entered into a Voluntary Agreement with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (“MOECC”) for Springpole and thus initiating an individual provincial EA under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. Terms of Reference (“ToR”) for the provincial EA are being prepared and will be submitted to MOECC for review prior to the end of 2018.
 
The ToR determines the scope of the provincial EA and what alternatives must be assessed as well as environmental aspects that could be impacted by the Project that the provincial EA must consider.
 

Source: https://firstmininggold.com/projects/tier-1/springpole-project/