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How would you and your partner Barrick nance the Donlin Gold project?
Both Barrick and NOVAGOLD recognize that Donlin Gold
is a unique asset, and each party is doing everything within its power to realize the asset’s extraordinary potential. We’re working together to successfully complete the permitting process. We
are also totally aligned in identifying optimized development scenarios that would maximize the project’s value and reduce initial capital outlay. Time is on our side and we have a healthy balance sheet, a ording us the exibility and strength to do things properly and to make a construction decision at the right time.
And while we have had several categories of investors interested in participating in Donlin Gold directly, this is not
a strategy on which we are focused. When our development scenario unfolds, we do not believe that money will be an issue. Meanwhile, the value of a 50% share in Donlin Gold, with all the rights and bene ts that confers, gives us precisely the pro le we seek.
NOVAGOLD is proud to have a core group of long-term shareholders who understand and share our investment thesis. Management regularly meets with existing and potential shareholders as well as market analysts to discuss the company’s progress on its commitment to advance Donlin Gold through the permitting process.
Just as important, management listens to these gold industry investors to glean their perspectives on the current and future state of the industry. The collapse in oil prices is a reminder
to investors that, unlike oil, gold is not a commodity. It is rst
and foremost a kind of currency that people have accepted as
a store of value long before paper currencies. If anything, the understanding and appreciation for gold is only going to improve since it is the only currency that cannot be printed at a time when major reserve currencies are being debased.
After a 40-year secular trend of attempted demonetization, gold is re-asserting itself as the only nancial asset that doesn’t represent someone else’s liability. Our understanding of the gold industry con rms our belief that NOVAGOLD o ers investors all the leverage they could wish for when the gold price resumes its upward trajectory, and when our undervalued equity will be even more precious than the metal itself.
Speaking for ourselves we expect that, with Donlin Gold’s strong attributes, there will be multiple nancing options: equity, debt, and third-party project nancing – just to mention a few.
If anything, considering the project’s many virtues, we are not remotely concerned about how, when the time is right, we will nance what we consider to be the most important gold project in the world.
Scarcity of quality assets, lack of exploration bode well for gold’s upward trajectory.
Worldwide Gold Exploration Budget (US$M)
Exploration Budget
Number of Gold Discoveries
$12,000 $10,000 $8,000 $6,000 $4,000 $2,000
4 22
11
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Source: SNL Metals & Mining. Number of gold discoveries comprises deposits with over 2 million ounces of gold. Newly found deposits may reach this threshold with further drilling. Gold discovery data for 2016 is not yet available.
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