First Mining Gold launches 2019 drilling, stock rallies

First Mining Gold Corp. [FF-TSX; FFMGF-OTCQX; FMG-FSE] shares rallied Monday June 24 after the company said it has launched the 2019 drilling program at its Goldlund gold project in northern Ontario.

The 2019 campaign follows on from the successful 2017 and 2018 drill programs at Goldlund which yielded strong results, resulted in an updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the project, and confirmed the potential of the Miller prospect.

First Mining shares advanced on the news, rising 9.76% or $0.02 to 22.5 cents on volume of 976,583 shares traded. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 20.5 cents and 46 cents.

First Mining Gold is an emerging development company with a diversified portfolio of gold projects in North America. It has assembled a resource base of 7.3 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated categories and 3.6 million ounces of gold in the inferred category in eastern Canada.

They include the Goldlund Project, which covers 28,572 hectares and is located 60 km northeast of Dryden, northern Ontario. The property has been extensively explored and hosted an underground and open pit mine between 1982 and 1985.

WSP Canada Inc. was commissioned last year to issue an updated NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for the project and complete a technical report.

The project contains an indicated resource of 12.86 million tonnes of grade 1.96 g/t gold, containing 809,000 ounces. On top of that is an inferred resource of 18.4 million tonnes, grading 1.49 g/t gold, or 876,954 ounces.

First mining acquired the asset in June 2016 via an amalgamation with Tamaka Gold Corp., a privately-held exploration company that owned the Goldlund project.

“We are very excited to announce the start of drilling at Goldlund, a key asset for First Mining,” said First Mining CEO Daniel Wilton. “The 2018 regional drill program confirmed that the geology and mineralization at the main Goldlund deposit has been demonstrated by Miller, which is located 10 km northeast and along strike of the current resource area,” Wilton said.

“As such, this corridor is a priority exploration area for potential resource growth and a focus for the company’s 2019 work program,” he said.

Wilton went on to say that this work will continue to advance First Mining’s understanding of Goldlund’s significant exploration upside, with a focus on unlocking the project’s size and district scale potential.

The initial work program at Miller will include 3,000 metres of step-out drilling, consisting of 14 drill holes planned along strike, both to the northeast and southwest of the area drilled in 2018. The drilling will test a total strike length of up to 900 metres, along 50-metre to 200-metre centres.

The work plan follows up on strong results achieved in 2018, which included 108 metres of 2.43 g/t gold in drill hole MI-18-002.

None of the 2018 drill results from Miller were included in the 2019 updated mineral resource estimate for Goldlund. The likelihood of further drilling at Miller in 2019 will be determined after this initial step-out phase, the company said.