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WHILE THERE IS A LOT OF TALK ABOUT ADVANCING DONLIN GOLD TOWARD PRODUCTION, THE EXPLORATION POTENTIAL MUST BE TANTALIZING FOR INVESTORS LIKE ELECTRUM, WHO BOAST SUCH A STRONG TRACK RECORD IN CREATING WEALTH THROUGH THE DRILL BIT. HOW DO YOU SEE THE POTENTIAL UPSIDE IN RESOURCE EXPANSION?
We would love to have drill rigs going all the time at Donlin, and one day we just might. Certainly, when I talk about the next big Donlin-like discovery possibly being at Donlin, the message is two-fold. Number one, as recalled earlier, our stated resources at Donlin Gold are located within only three kilometers of what we know to be an eight-kilometer mineralized trend. Hence Electrum’s legendary geologist Dr. Larry Buchanan assessing that Donlin’s potential endowment could easily be more, and then some. While one can obviously consider this to be the ultimate forward-looking statement, I personally believe that Larry is right. More than that, the eight-kilometer trend again only represents some 5 percent of the total land package at Donlin Gold.
Number two, when Larry surmised that the next Donlin might possibly be at Donlin, it’s because there is a strong possibility that we could be dealing with a district here with the potential for more discoveries: a “New Carlin” or “New Nevada,” if you will. That’s if you dare to dream, and I do. But even if it didn’t turn out to be a district and there’s no additional Donlin there, we remain in the presence of an asset that already has exceptional potential – and that sure would be good enough for me.
Again, I fully appreciate that this constitutes about as much of a forward-looking statement as anyone could make, so disregard
it if you so wish. And if you want to consider it, then regard it as
– at best – apocryphal. That being said, the fact is, for a variety of reasons, the Donlin area has been under-explored beyond that eight-kilometer belt. We know, as miners in this business, that if one is going out in search of elephants, one ought to look in elephant country – and there simply is quite a lot of prospective land yet
to be explored at Donlin. But I’ve been in this movie a number of times in my career now, and I would not bet against such a scenario.
YOU CALL NOVAGOLD A “PURE PLAY.” HOW SO?
NOVAGOLD is a pure play on Donlin Gold. There is no pure play on the Barrick-Newmont joint venture in Nevada. I wish there were. There is, however, a pure play on the Barrick-NOVAGOLD joint venture in Alaska – which already ranks, incidentally, as the second largest gold-producing state in the Union, after Nevada. And that glorious pure play is NOVAGOLD. This is great for NOVAGOLD
and great for Barrick, which, I am highly confident, will also reap considerable rewards for its shareholders from Donlin that I do not believe are presently reflected in Barrick’s share price.
SEVERAL OF YOUR LARGEST SHAREHOLDERS, SUCH AS FIDELITY AND PAULSON & CO., HAVE BEEN INVESTORS FOR A VERY LONG TIME. HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE SUCH IMPRESSIVE STAYING POWER WITH THESE IMPORTANT AND HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED INVESTORS?
No discussion about NOVAGOLD would be complete without a shout-out to our outstanding shareholder base. As any investor looking at our story will immediately recognize, it is populated with many extraordinary names. In addition to Electrum, the company’s largest shareholders include Fidelity Management and Research, Paulson and Co., Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Van Eck Associates, BlackRock, First Eagle, and Exor, along with other highly regarded institutions. As the largest shareholders of NOVAGOLD, Electrum is very proud to be joined by these highly astute investors who are regularly referred to as “smart money.”
We are indeed proud of the fact that these and many other venerable financial institutions have owned our stock for a very long time. For they see what we see, and are not just educated consumers – but in fact among the very best that we could hope to have in our corner. Fidelity, for example, joined the shareholder register when we did our last fundraising back in 2012. They
have since added to their holdings, as NOVAGOLD has been consistently delivering on its promises and strategy set out in 2012 to restructure the company into a pure play on Donlin Gold while
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