NOVAGOLD Resources Reports Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Results

• NOVAGOLD’s strong cash position of $126 million as of November 30, 2022, with additional funds of $25 million due in July 2023 from Newmont Corporation, should be sufficient to advance Donlin Gold through an updated feasibility study.
• The 42,331-meter (m) 2022 drill program was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The Donlin Gold joint release issued by NOVAGOLD and Barrick on January 19, 2023 reported results that reconcile favorably with the resource model as well as further support the global resource estimate and recent modelling concepts.
• With an increased appreciation of the geology, the experienced team will continue to focus on updating the resource model and completing trade-off studies — all of which are moving Donlin Gold up the value chain and leading toward an updated feasibility study decision to position the project well for the next leg in gold’s long-term bull market.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NOVAGOLD RESOURCES INC. (“NOVAGOLD” or “the Company”) (NYSE American, TSX: NG) today released its 2022 fiscal year financial results and an update on Donlin Gold, among the largest — and envisioned to be in the lower quartile in terms of operating cost — of the next generation of gold operating mines, and more importantly in a jurisdiction that welcomes responsible development. Donlin Gold LLC is owned equally by NOVAGOLD and Barrick Gold Corporation (“Barrick”).

Details of the financial results for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2022 are presented in the consolidated financial statements and annual report on Form 10-K filed on January 25, 2023 that is available on the Company’s website at www.novagold.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

In 2022, the following milestones were achieved at Donlin Gold:

• The comprehensive 141-hole, 42,331-meter drill program was successfully completed ahead of schedule, with multiple high-grade gold intercepts reported from the last set of assays and the advancement of key project efforts.
• The success of our 2022 drill program is due to the exceptional dedication of the Donlin Gold team in Anchorage and at site, the majority of which are local hires from 24 different communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (“Y-K”) region, who all share the goal of protecting the health and safety of their colleagues.
• In partnership with Calista Corporation (“Calista”) and The Kuskokwim Corporation (“TKC”), the Company pursued its stakeholder and government engagement efforts in the Y-K region, Alaska and Washington, D.C.:
  • Crooked Creek, the closest community to the project site in the Y-K region formally expressed its support of Donlin Gold;
  • Four additional Shared Value Statements were signed with Y-K villages, for a total of 12;
  • Five local hires from the 2022 drill program signed on as Donlin Gold Community Liaison representatives in their villages (Marshall, Tuluksak, Nikolai, Napaskiak, and Pilot Station); and
  • Calista and Donlin Gold continued their proactive, bipartisan outreach in Alaska as well as with the Administration and Congress in Washington, D.C.

• Environmental and social investment focused on the Y-K region spanned from supporting important health and safety initiatives in remote communities to cultural preservation efforts and educational programming in collaboration with school districts and other organizations. Key achievements included:
  • Conducted multiple fishery studies, reclamation work and other environmental activities.
  • Supported various search and rescue teams in the region, funded the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation and Bethel Community Services Foundation, as well as sponsored and participated in the Alaska Safe Riders initiative, which promotes safety for year-round outdoor sports.
  • Fostered education, community wellness and cultural preservation through a variety of interventions including several river studies, supported the local school district and educational organizations, funded and participated in youth sporting activities, and backed initiatives led by Traditional Councils and Native communities.

• As a federally permitted project on private Alaska Native Corporation land designated by law for mining activities and with key State permits in hand, activities continued to keep our permits in good standing. Major milestones included:
  • Applied for a new air quality permit from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). A draft permit was issued for public comment in December 2022.
  • Submitted application to ADEC for the regularly scheduled re-issuance of its Alaska Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which is now complete and will remain in effect until the State completes the re-issuance.
  • On November 1, 2022, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR) finalized the re-location plan for public easements in the mine site and transportation facility areas — decisions which were not appealed.

President’s Message

Excellent Results from the 2022 Drill Program Support Next Steps for Donlin Gold

NOVAGOLD’s management team has been together for a decade now and is committed to the advancement of the 50%-owned Donlin Gold project to be perfectly situated for the next leg in the gold bull market. Many activities have taken place over the years to support Donlin Gold and de-risk the project to enable it to benefit from a rising gold price environment. These include, among many others, the receipt of key Federal and State permits, geological and exploration drilling, technical and trade-off studies, environmental initiatives, successful implementation of employee health and safety procedures, and extensive community engagement and government affairs efforts. This last year was no exception as activities substantially ramped-up at the start of the year with the project camp reopening to begin the largest drill program in over 15 years at Donlin Gold. This campaign was executed while remaining attentive to the health and safety of our employees, project contractors and stakeholders, and concurrently with the extensive community relations and government affairs efforts conducted in collaboration with our Alaska Native Corporation partners, Calista and TKC. The success of this program is due to the exceptional dedication of the Donlin Gold team in Anchorage and at site, the majority of which were local hires from 24 different communities in the Y-K region, who all share the goal of protecting the health and safety of their colleagues.

Donlin Gold’s 2022 drill program was completed in September with 141 holes drilled for a total of 42,331 m. The final set of results released jointly with Barrick on January 19, 2023, include assays for 37 complete and 7 partial holes, encompassing the remaining 12,762 m of length drilled. Drilling in 2022 returned some of the best assay results seen to date at Donlin Gold, delivering outstanding gold intercepts which include, among others from the most recent set of assay results, drill hole DC22-2130 that intersected 17.20 m grading 11.11 g/t gold, with a sub-interval of 4.25 m grading 36.91 g/t gold.

As part of the key focus areas for the drill program, tight-spaced 20m x 20m grid drilling in representative areas within the main structural domains of the deposit (Lewis –further infilled to 10m x 10m, West ACMA and Divide areas) confirmed recent geological modelling at wider drill-spacing in the immediate area surrounding the grids. It also identified additional short-scale controls that will be incorporated into an update to refine the geological domains used for global resource estimation, which will be utilized for strategic mine planning work. The 14 additional geotechnical drill holes provided information needed to advance the application for the Alaska Dam Safety Certifications. In truth, we could not be happier with the outcome of the 2022 drill program; the assay labs returned some of the best intercepts since the project’s inception and indeed among open-pit gold projects industry-wide. Just to highlight how encouraging the results were, what follows are the top 20 intercepts from the 2022 Donlin Gold drill program:

With this highly successful drill program behind us, to be followed by the completion of an updated resource model and trade-off studies, the owners look forward to supporting the Donlin Gold team and its partners Calista and TKC in positioning the project for the next steps in taking Donlin Gold up the value chain with an updated feasibility…