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Vancouver's First Mining Gold reports that the active forest fire currently near its Springpole gold mine project in northwestern Ontario has been classified as “Under Control” by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
The company said in an Aug. 5 news release that its staff and consultants are heading back to the site, 110 kilometres northeast of Red Lake, to continue limited work related to environmental data collection, geological logging and sampling work.
First Mining evacuated the camp in early July.
The fire caused no damage to the company's infrastructure or equipment on the property.
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The company has plans to build an open-pit gold and silver mine. It's currently in the permitting stage of preparing its environmental impact study for submission this summer to the federal and provincial governments. The government review process takes two years.
Construction of the mine is tentatively slated to begin in late 2023.
The mine would have an estimated 11-year mine life although exploration is ongoing to find more resources in the ground to extend its operating life.
First Mining said it expects to receive more guidance from the ministry as to the timing to resume field work in the coming weeks and anticipates some delays to the current work programs. Updates will be provided on the progress of technical and environmental work, along with details on its exploration plans, once it's able to resume field work.
Since July 21, the ministry has had an emergency area order in place covering a large region of northwest Ontario which restricts or prohibits certain mineral exploration activities deemed to be a fire risk and which has limited First Mining’s ability to continue drill programs and other work outside of the Springpole camp. First Mining anticipates resuming this work once the Emergency Area Order has been lifted.
