First Mining Initiates Permitting for Construction of Access Road to Connect Hope Brook Gold Project

First Mining Gold Corp. (“First Mining” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the commencement of permitting for the construction of a low-profile, resource access road (the “Access Road”) to connect its Hope Brook Gold Project (“Hope Brook”) in southeast Newfoundland, Canada to the Burgeo Highway or Highway 480.

A Project Registration Document (the “Registration Document”) was recently submitted to the Environmental Assessment Division of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in relation to the Access Road.  It is currently undergoing a standard 45-day review process and the document can be accessed at: https://www.gov.nl.ca/

Jeff Swinoga, President & CEO of First Mining stated, “We hope that the initiation of permitting for this access road is just the first step in a series of future milestones in advancing one of our most promising gold projects.  Our Hope Brook Gold Project in Newfoundland is a former producing gold mine and has a high grade mineral resource located in a very favourable jurisdiction.”

The Access Road will be approximately 58 kilometres in length and is intended to provide light to intermediate-sized vehicles with access to the Hope Brook property to support mineral development activities to be conducted by First Mining.

The Registration Document is intended to initiate the provincial Environmental Assessment (“EA”) review process in Newfoundland and Labrador.  The Registration Document:

• identifies the proponent (First Mining) and nature of the undertaking;
• describes the proposed Access Road, including its purpose, rationale and alternatives, as well as key components and planned construction and operational activities;
• provides an overview of the natural and human environmental setting for the Access Road;
• describes potential environmental interactions and planned mitigation; and
• identifies the main permits, licences and approvals required for the Access Road.

The Company is also planning a broad range of environmental baseline studies this year at Hope Brook, as well as along the proposed Access Road corridor, to collect the necessary biophysical data to support a potential EA and future permitting requirements.  These studies include fish community and habitat surveys, Species at Risk surveys, as well as surface, ground water and hydrology surveys.  Field work for these surveys is planned for August and September of this year.

The current resource estimate for the Hope Brook gold project, using a 3.00 g/t gold (“Au”) cut-off grade, is as follows:

Hope Brook Deposit Mineral Resource Estimate