New Found Gold

It’s now my pleasure to introduce Keith Boyle, the CEO of New Found Gold. Please go ahead.

All right, thanks everyone. Of course, we have our disclaimer and forward-looking statements. So why New Found Gold? Well, we’re Canada’s newest gold producer. We’ve got growing gold production, and we’re fully funded to do it. We’re in a very good mining jurisdiction in Newfoundland, Labrador. I’ve worked in many jurisdictions around the world actually, and this is the best one I’ve worked in. So it’s been just a pleasure working with both the government and the people. We’re at a really good entry point for investors, really coming out of the trough of the Lassonde Curve and on the way up in the development path. And we do have a property package that is quite spectacular, and we now have the team that’s executing on the plan.

So what are the key assets? For us, the key asset, of course, is the Queensway project. That’s our flagship. We put out a PEA there last year, and we looked at it as a phased approach, starting with a small 700-ton-a-day operation, delivering 10 to 12 grams to a mill off-site so that we can accelerate that program, take that cash flow, and then build the expansion with a mill on-site and grow that production.

So late last year, we bought a company called Maritime Resources with these assets here. The Hammerdown Gold Mine had just started production actually. It was just in development when we took it over, but more importantly, we bought the Pine Cove Mill. So it’s currently treating the Hammerdown Gold Mine, which is in commercial production, at 700 tons a day. We are currently, one, converting the mill from flotation Merrill Crow to gravity CIL, and then the next step after that is to expand it to 1,400 tons a day, in other words, double it, so that it can accept Queensway.

So Hammerdown now is producing about 20,000 to 25,000 ounces a year at an all-in sustaining of $2,500, giving us $35 million, $40 million a year to cover G&A and exploration. Queensway first ore projected for Q4 of next year, ’27, so about a year from now, and that run rate will be above 70,000 ounces a year for that three-year period of ’28 to ’30. And then during that time, we’ll build the mill on-site at Queensway, and then the production then will jump, targeting 200,000 ounces a year.

So the combined production profile, as I mentioned, ’27, we’re in production at Hammerdown, and we’ll get into production at Queensway. But really, those ’28 to ’30, we’re looking at over 90,000 ounces, really targeting 100,000, and then in ’21, hitting that 200,000 ounces. And of course, exploration potential really to fill in the back end. Now, this was done on last year’s PEA and our initial mineral resource estimate. We’re coming out in the next weeks with an updated mineral resource estimate and technical report, and so we would expect an increase in that resource and starting to fill in some of that back end.

We’re fully funded. The end of Q2, we had $194 million in the bank. We had just raised $220 million in April, $115 million of equity and $105 million of debt. We drew on $70 million of that debt. We have $35 million left to draw on by April of next year. We also have $17 million of warrants that will come due from now until September of next year, all well within the money. And of course, Hammerdown now is generating cash, so that’s our projected cash flow for Hammerdown. And that will pay for the CapEx for Queensway to put it into production. We’ve got $155 million here, corp G&A, and of course, continued exploration. At the end of next year, once Queensway’s started production, we’ll have projected $88 million in the bank. So we think we’ve got a really good buffer there, and so we’re fully funded.

As I mentioned, we’re at a good entry point on the Lassonde Curve. We’ve had some good catalysts leading up to today. We just graduated to the TSX from the TSXV. We just announced a couple of weeks ago the commercial production at Hammerdown on time, on budget. We’ll be publishing our updated PEA mineral resource estimate at Queensway. We’ll be projecting to get our EA beginning of ’27, and then breaking ground at Queensway in Q2 of next year so that everything lines up to deliver that first ore to Queensway fourth quarter of 2027. In the meantime, we’ll be advancing phase two through a feasibility study, permit application, and then detailed engineering.

So we’ve got 410 million shares fully diluted outstanding. Valuation for us now is about $900 million. So with the growth profile we’ve got to ’28 looking at 100,000 ounces and then 200,000 ounces to 2031, we see the opportunity for investors, and then we’ve got a pretty good share register. Eric, of course, is our largest, has been in since the very beginning and extremely supportive. EdgePoint were the ones that came in with the $105 million of debt in April as well as $20 million US of equity participation in the $115 million. So they want to be a partner with us for the long term, as they’ve said, right alongside Eric. We’re covered by six analysts, Michael Curran at Beacon being the latest one to launch.

So this change really all started back in December of ’24, where Paul Hewitt was brought in as Chair of the Board. Everybody on the board is new last year. I was brought in in January. Everybody in the management team is new except for Melissa Render, who was the VP of Exploration, now President, and so really has been there six years. So the continuity around the exploration is with Melissa, but the full team here is the experienced around developing and producing. So we’re now in production and it’s growing. So as I mentioned, we have quite a progress to build to mid-tier gold producer, and it really does show that, one, we’ve done a lot to get here, but two, we still have lots to go, but great team. We’ve got a great team that’s executing on it, and the experience of the team has done this before.

When I look at the Queensway development, when we say high-grade core, phase one are the dark blue bars, phase two are the light bars, which is the larger open pit, and then phase three are the beige bars, which is the underground contribution, about just over 200,000 ounces of the 1.5 million that’s in the mine plan. Couple of points to take away here. One, as you can see, the very good grade early on; we’re focused on the high-grade core. Two, it’s $155 million of CapEx to build phase one, and the cash flow from that will then build phase two, that CapEx being $442 million. Those three years at today’s price are over $800 million of free cash. So about half is what we’ll need to build and get that phase two up and going. Lots of torque on gold price. Our base case was done at $2,500. Our upside case, spot back in July of last year, was $3,300. So you can see a 200% return at $1.5 billion NPV.

So in terms of exploration potential, we try and just summarize it in a slide. The property to the right, rather, it’s the Queensway property, and it really does show that it’s huge potential. So the mine plan we’re talking about now is in that little box. It’s about a 4.5-kilometer strike. We discovered Dropkick late ’24, so it wasn’t in that initial mineral resource estimate. Have some fantastic grades that we followed up on this last year and will be included as part of our update. But more importantly, the strike length here is 110 kilometers. So it’s basically Val d’Or to Rouyn with a 20-kilometer swath. So it is quite prolific. We’ve got the two main conduits, the fault zones that are the conduits for the gold. Over the last 18 months, we’ve been focused on Queensway, but only in June did we then switch gears and start looking at targets further afield. It’s all about getting to the end at Queensway, production, but there’s lots of targets, exploration potential.

And up at Hammerdown, if you recall, I mentioned the Pine Cove mill now is getting doubled, so from 700 to 1,400 tons a day, and that’s for phase one. Phase one is 700 tons a day up until 2030, and then we’ll have a mill on site at Queensway. So we’ll have 700 tons of room to fill up at Pine Cove. So we’ve hired an exploration manager who started just this last June. We’re compiling the data. The previous company really hadn’t spent any money on exploration, didn’t have it. It was really tough to get capital. So there’s lots of good targets. There’s four historic mines plus Hammerdown. We’re looking at expanding our exploration efforts here so that we can fill that 700 tons a day, which isn’t reflected in that production profile I just showed you a while ago.

So I’ll just show you, if you recall those beige bars. So this is the mine plan, a plan view of Queensway. And the white line at the bottom is the TransCanada Highway. So we do have to truck 270 kilometers, but it’s on highway. The red line that goes right through is the hydro line. We have to move the main hydro line around the property, the yellow line. And we’re less than 20 minutes outside of Gander. It’s 20 if you stop at Tim Hortons to grab a coffee, but it’s less; it’s 20 minutes outside of Gander. So we’ve got a population base that we can pull from. Gander serves about 70,000 people in the surrounding communities. And so it’s quite a population base.

And every time I’ve flown in and out of Newfoundland, half the seats on the plane are FIFO workers. They’re going somewhere else. And so since we’ve announced our development plans and the financings, and really starting, I would say, beginning of this year, we’ve had a lot of inbound calls of those FIFO workers wanting to come home. They want to sleep in their beds. And so the question about finding that experienced workforce always comes up. I don’t see us being a problem. What have we got now? We’ve got probably about 300 people working up at Hammerdown and Pine Cove, and they drive home. And those are even smaller communities. So we think we’ve got it. There’s no camp outlined here.

So now let’s talk about the underground potential, because what you see here is just over 200,000 ounces of 1.5 million. The deepest stope on the left is down to 400 meters, so not far at all. But it’s really because the drilling was focused above 250 meters. Well over 90% of the drilling is above 250. There was some seismic work done here a couple of years ago. They did do proof of concept drilling and hit it all the way down to 1,000 meters. We can zoom in. So hit grade and widths. You can see the general trend pointing. So these are the kind of grade and widths that we did hit. And so now it’s really, well, what do we do next? And the way I see it unfolding is that we would advance, start mining and drill and just keep mining. So we could see those beige bars grow and start filling in the back end.

And then, as I said, 11 kilometers to the north, a discovery called Dropkick was done in late ’24. Again, some pretty spectacular grades and widths, really hitting those high-grade chutes. Last year, we drilled it out. We expanded that zone over a kilometer and a half and 300 meters deep. The white was the previous drilling. The yellow is the drilling we did last year. So this wasn’t in our resource and mine plan, but it will be in the upcoming one that we’ll be announcing there in the next weeks.

So all in all, we’ve got this property package at Queensway that’s 110 kilometers long. We’ve got lots of indications. What you see here is grab samples. The purple is 10 grams a ton or more. Red is 3 to 10 grams right at surface. Now, it is till, glacial till, so there is work to do to find what the source of this is. But it is along those fault zones. Now, we acquired the ground to the north of Dropkick late last year. So our team has been compiling the results, and more recently, we’ve been going out and following up on what the previous company had done in terms of exploration. But again, it’s all along those fault zones. 65 kilometers to the south, some drilling was done three, four years ago. And when we look at it, we can see something developing. The drill results from Paul’s Pond in particular, not as spectacular as Dropkick, but still very good. An exploration company would be quite excited to have something like this. So we really do see the potential, one, of filling in the back end of that triangle, but a new discovery right at Queensway.

So in summary, we’ve got a clear path of growth, staged growth through to 200,000 ounces, fully funded. And we’re doing it in Newfoundland, Labrador, where permitting is fantastic, and I would say we don’t have the same kind of issues of First Nations that others have in the country. It’s a great entry point for people to get in, and our property package is quite good. I’ve never seen it this big. And we’ve got the people, and they’re doing it right now. So we’ve delivered on everything on time, on budget so far, and we expect to do so. Thanks very much.

We got time for maybe one question from the audience for Keith. All right. Very quickly, the Pine Cove expansion, you went from 700 to 1,400 tons per day. Any key components that we should focus on that may be needed for that permitting, anything like that, that investors should be looking at to track this expansion process?

So I guess the key part of getting that expansion finished for Q4 of next year is really on execution. Because we really fast-tracked it, we didn’t spend all the time ahead to get all the engineering done before we started, so it’s more of a construction-driven execution. Now, it is a small mill. Seven hundred is not a big mill. And so really I would advise them to listen for the milestones. So there are a couple of permitting milestones that we still have to hit, and there’s also execution milestones, concrete, building, et cetera.

Very good. Thank you very much.