First Phosphate Corp. (CSE:PHOS, OTCQX:FRSPF, FRA:KD0, OTC:FPHOY) CEO John Passalacqua talked with Proactive about the latest analytical results from infill drilling at the Bégin-Lamarche project, highlighting strong assay results and key progress toward an updated mineral resource estimate.
Proactive: All right welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. Joining me now is John Passalacqua. He is the CEO of First Phosphate. And John it's great to see you again. How are you?
John Passalacqua: Yeah great. Thank you for having me.
Yeah. So exciting news out from the company that you've put out some analytical results from your infill drilling at your Bégin-Lamarche project. So maybe explain to everyone what this is.
Yeah. So as you remember, we recently finished our drill campaign. Last month, it was supposed to be a 30,000 metre drill program. We went to about 40,000 metres. So after we finished that program, we gather up all the core and we go out for assay. So these are the results of the assaying that came back from the laboratory.
So as you can see, we had some very, very strong veins that were intersected, some new veins as well in the mountain, the north and the south zone. And so all of this now gives us all the information that we need to then move to updating the mineral resource estimate and updating our 3D geological model and then determining what are the next steps of the property.
I know that you have a lot of areas on that particular property, and you've broken it up in a way that makes it easy for people to understand. Talk to us about the size and scale of what you're seeing with all these zones that you have.
Yeah. So basically there's three zones, right? The mountain, the north and the south. So the mountain zone is definitely the highest mineralization. Now when doing the infill drilling in the North Zone, we've realized that certain parts of the north are just as highly mineralized as the mountain zone. And in the southern zone, the mineralization starts to taper off a little bit, but we've also found some new, very strong zones in there and been able to better define what's there.
So all of this just gives us a lot more strength and credibility in the resource and allows us, in the update of the mineral resource estimate to come out in a few weeks, to update from inferred and indicated up to indicated and measured, which are the basis of what is needed for the next steps of mining, which is obviously a feasibility study.
Yeah. Talk to me, John, a bit about that mineral resource estimate and the 3D modeling that will go with it. I mean, that's obviously two key parts of this.
Yeah. So when we did our PEA about a year and a half ago, we had a 3D model and a mineral resource estimate. So all we're going to be doing is really updating that. We'll probably see a jump from inferred and indicated to indicated and measured. We'll get a better glimpse into the resource.
Under the PEA it's a little bit fuzzy, maybe now with the infill drilling we're going to get a lot more definition as to the veins, the concentrations, the mineralization and the reserve statuses.
And lastly, John, I know your treasury is good, so you've got lots of runway for work all this year and into next year. Tell me a bit about the rest of this year. There's sounds like there's going to be a lot of work still ahead.
Yeah. So this year is really about getting to this mineral resource estimate and 3D geological model. We'll put that before our board to be able to move into a feasibility study. And if we decide to move into the feasibility study, we should complete that by the end of this year 2026.
So very important next steps here is finalizing this geological model and moving into that feasibility study at a very accelerated pace to then move into permitting in 2027. We have a very aggressive timeline here for the mine, which would be an open pit mine by mid-2029.
All right John, we'll leave it there. Lots of work still to come. Thank you very much. Good to see you again.
Yeah. Thank you for having me. Always great to be here.
Quotes have been lightly edited for style and clarity