by Scott A. Sumner

 I asked Steve Lines, Vice President, Sustainability for First Mining Gold some questions recently at the Neeganii-IIshawin Gathering 2026, about the Springpole project north of Sioux Lookout.

 

 “ I live in Quebec and travel a lot to Toronto, Montreal, Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, doing work with Ontario and the communities. Our head office is in Vancouver. My background is in ecology and environmental assessment.” 

 “ We have two of the largest gold projects in terms of the resource. One is our Springpole gold project, about  140 KM north in Sioux Lookout and the other near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec- in Duparquet.”  

- “ Springpole is currently a fly in exploration camp with the closest access being a forestry road about 18 km from the camp. In the summer we go in with float planes, in the shoulder season we use helicopters and in the winter when the ice is ready, we will fly in by plane.”  

“ The project is in a well-advanced development stage. The deposit had been known for a very long time. First Gold acquired the project in 2015 and started working on the EA in 2018 /19. That is when the environment assessment processes were initiated with the Federal and Provincial governments. We are at the tail end of this, close to potential approvals by about May and shortly thereafter.” 

 “ It will be an open pit mine. The deposit is largely located under a northern bay of Springpole Lake and the deposit sits under that and very similar to other northern mines in Canada. It is about 1 gram per ton of gold and we anticipate mining 30 thousand tons per day.” 

 “ To get access to the property we need to build an 18 km all weather road as well as do some work on the forestry road in terms of maintenance. We would haul in all the construction materials, say to build an accommodation complex. There are anticipated about 350 employees during the operation period.

 What would be the output of the Springpole mine? 

 “ We would produce gold bars with possible recovery of about 4 Million oz of gold as well as 20 million oz of silver. In the first five years we are talking about 300,000 oz of gold per year. Gold has crossed over $5000 per oz US recently.”  “ It is a good time to be building a gold mine.  We are traded on the 
Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol FF.” 

 It seems like this will be a significant investment to get to an operating mine?

 “ It is a very significant investment, we recently updated our pre-feasibility study and it will be about $1.5 billion of upfront costs to build this project, which is in the ballpark for this type of mining project.  “ We are looking to enter construction at some time in 2027. After the environmental assessments nearing completion, there is a permitting process we would still need to work through. We would start with establishing site access, some clearing for laydown areas and with the accommodation complex to help facilitate the further construction. It is about a 3 year construction process so it will be about 2030 to be operational.” 
 “  It is a long haul and comprehensive process to go through to have the opportunity to build a mine.” 
 
The mine will create many opportunities for economic growth? 
 “We do consultation with the Indigenous communities all along the way and will continue throughout the life of the mine. There are tremendous opportunities for the communities around Springpole. There are infrastructure opportunities with roads and the transmission line. It is life changing for the community based on where they want to go and how we can help them achieve their goals.”