NovaGold Resources Aktie

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the conference call to discuss NOVAGOLD entering into definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Donlin Gold.

[Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Trisha, and welcome to the presentation on today's announcement of NOVAGOLD entering into definitive agreements to acquire 100% ownership of Donlin Gold. On today's call, we have John Paulson, Founder of Paulson; Dr. Thomas Kaplan, Chairman of NOVAGOLD; and Greg Lang, NOVAGOLD's President and CEO.

I would like to remind you, as stated on Slide 2, any statements made today may contain forward-looking information such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve risks detailed in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation. Without further ado, I will hand the call over to Mr. Lang, our President and CEO. Greg?

Thank you, Melanie. Today, we announced a transformative all-share transaction that consolidates 100% ownership of Donlin Gold under a single U.S. domicile parent company. Donlin Gold Holdings currently owns 40% of the Donlin Gold project. NOVAGOLD owns the other 60%. This deal brings the two together. NOVAGOLD and Paulson's Donlin Gold Holdings will combine in an all-share transaction effectively taking NOVAGOLD's ownership of Donlin from 60% to 100%.

New NovaGold, which we are, will be a Delaware corporation, U.S. domiciled with a roughly $4 billion market cap. On a fully diluted basis, existing NOVAGOLD shareholders, including Paulson's equity stake in NOVAGOLD, will own about 65% of New NovaGold and Donlin Gold Holdings will remain 35% shareholder. Paulson, inclusive of his existing NOVAGOLD and Donlin stake combined, will hold approximately 40% of New NovaGold, with his voting interest being capped at 19.99%. The number of New NovaGold shares to be issued to Paulson will be determined based on a 10% discount to the equity value of Paulson's 40% ownership interest in Donlin implied by the equity value of NOVAGOLD based on a 10-day VWAP rated average of NOVAGOLD common shares as of July 21st. Each NOVAGOLD share will be exchanged for 1 voting share of New NovaGold in this arrangement.

NOVAGOLD's independence is preserved through specific lock-up, standstill and voting restrictions applicable to Paulson's stake. The New NovaGold Board will be chaired -- co-chaired by Dr. Kaplan and Mr. Paulson. The Board will be expanded from 10 to 11 directors. Paulson can nominate 2 directors as long as their ownership interest remains above 15% of the issued and outstanding shares of New NovaGold. Paulson intends to nominate himself as Co-Chair and Marcelo Kim as the second designee at closing.

The deal is intended to qualify as a tax-free exchange and is expected to be a taxable disposition. The approvals needed require at least 2/3s of the votes cast by NOVAGOLD shareholders plus court approvals, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. We expect to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

Turning to the next slide. Let's look at what the pro forma structure is like. At the top sits New NovaGold, a U.S. domicile parent company, New NovaGold is owned by 2 shareholder groups on a pro forma basis, legacy NOVAGOLD shareholders and former Donlin Gold Holdings shareholders.

Below NOVAGOLD -- New NovaGold sits NOVAGOLD RESOURCES, the Canadian entity, NovaGold U.S. Holdings, and NOVAGOLD Resources Alaska.

Donlin Gold LLC, which owns the Donlin Gold project itself, will be 100% owned by New NovaGold, up from the previous 60-40 split with Donlin Gold Holdings. Paulson's aggregate 40% economic interest in New NovaGold reflects his stake from both the former holdings and his existing holdings in NOVAGOLD, which is held since 2010.

So what does this do for NOVAGOLD shareholders? Slide 6 highlights the substantial benefits. The transaction creates value across 8 distinct areas. We'll be a leading U.S. pure-play gold developer with $4.2 billion equity value and 100% ownership of Donlin Gold, which is expected to have annual production of 1.3 million ounces in the first 10 years. That's an increase of over 520,000 attributable ounces of annual production for NOVAGOLD. The transaction is immediately accretive on multiple key metrics, accretive on net asset value per share on gold reserves and resources per share, and this adds 16 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, including 13 million ounces attributable to proven and probable reserves for pro forma totals of 33 million ounces of reserves and 40 million ounces of resources.

This transaction will enhance access to capital. It facilitates broader access to private and official sector funds, government agencies and sovereign wealth funds to fund the next phase of Donlin Gold's development.

This strengthens our long-term alignment with a Board chaired by Dr. Kaplan and John Paulson. This delivers continuity of ownership, oversight and access to capital. This also increases our operational efficiency and streamlines corporate decision-making at Donlin while preserving NOVAGOLD's independence governance through the lock-up, standstill and voting restrictions.

This is a tax-efficient structure for a U.S. domiciled parent, and that is where our assets sit. We create a single point of contact, which simplifies engaging with key stakeholders, notably Donlin's long-term native corporation landowners, Calista and TKC. This also better positions the company for any future strategic opportunities.

Moving on to Slide 8. Looking at North American peers. New NovaGold stands out as a leader on both total mineral resources and annual production especially among the intermediate producers and developers. Donlin Gold combines a rare set of attributes, exceptional scale, high-grade open pit mineralization, a multi-decade mine life, competitive operating costs, tremendous exploration upside and critically and crucially, a stable and predictable jurisdiction.

New NovaGold, as shown on Slide 9, enhances the scale, liquidity and market appeal. On a pro forma market capitalization basis, New NovaGold would be approximately $4.2 billion. Larger market cap improves index eligibility, broadens the potential investor base and typically drives greater liquidity. Regular liquidity, in turn, reduces the cost of capital and expands the pool of potential institutional investors who can meaningfully own the stock, being a U.S. domiciled pure gold developer at this scale is a distinctive positioning versus our peers. And critically, this transaction is accretive to NOVAGOLD shareholders.

Turning to Slide 10. Accretion to net asset value per share is shown on the left chart. Accretion to gold resources per share is shown on the right. Both metrics highlight the fact that NOVAGOLD shareholders are consolidating full ownership of an asset they already partially owned with the share issuance whose value is more than offset by the additional resources and net asset value pickup. Independence is preserved through specific lock-up, standstill and voting restrictions applicable to Paulson's stake. This is not a change of control transaction and none of this would have been possible without the strong relationship between Dr. Paulson (sic) [ Mr. Paulson ] and Tom Kaplan. I'll now turn the call over to Dr. Kaplan.

Thank you, Greg. I'd like to reiterate what Greg just concluded with, which is to say a lot of this has to do with the fact that this deal, the second major deal, over the last year, which is being done with John Paulson, is built on a 16-year partnership between NOVAGOLD and John Paulson. John has been one of our longest-standing and most engaged shareholders. He's been in the story only a few months shy of my 17-year engagement with NOVAGOLD. And I think it's fair to say that neither of us have ever experienced along the way any sense of deal fatigue.

Those who are looking at this transaction, which clearly, for all of the reasons that Greg Lang has enumerated, is accretive on every metric is shareholder friendly by every standpoint of corporate governance of being able to have more economic interest in the story, of being able to have consolidated the story in a way that's going to make access to capital to build Donlin so much more available and accessible, to be able to rationalize the management.

It looks like a great deal, and candidly, maybe this is a forward-looking statement, but it is a great deal. It is exactly what it looks like. There are no tricks, no gimmicks. It is the combination of two completely apples-to-apples assets, but more than that, what I wish to impress upon you and a lot of you out there will have seen me in different capacities over the last couple of months. But as you've always heard me say, the jewel in our crown, our gold flagship is NOVAGOLD. And that is because in its combination of attributes, its size, its production profile. This will be the biggest gold mine in the safest jurisdiction in the world. For all of these reasons, we consider Donlin to be unique. And indeed, in my quote in the press release, I put it this way as to the contribution made by John Paulson to this journey.

As underscored by last year's game-changing and operationally seamless joint acquisition by NOVAGOLD and Paulson of Barrick Mining Corporation's 50% interest in Donlin Gold. John Paulson and his team's steadfast and loyal commitment as a partner and shareholder, have been absolutely integral to NOVAGOLD's continued success.

Since 2009, he and I have been fully aligned in our belief that Donlin Gold constitutes a holy grail for gold mining investors as well as the ultimate expression of a shared view that the most successful investing in this space comes through superlative-rich, differentiated Tier 1 assets that achieve maximum leverage to gold in a jurisdiction where one can keep the fruits of that leverage.

Now let me underscore what John has said, "consolidating our interest in Donlin into NOVAGOLD enhances Donlin's organizational structure and will facilitate streamline and expedite the development of the Donlin mine. As the major shareholder of New NovaGold, I share the conviction that Donlin Gold is a world-class gold investment. I look forward to developing this magnificent project as Co-Chair with Tom and our teams. In addition, NOVAGOLD will be redomiciled to the U.S., the home of Donlin Gold, which is quite simply the best jurisdiction in the world for gold investors. I look forward to applying our joint expertise to advance the interests of all shareholders."

These quotations bear repeating because every word is true. You can see it as a transparent reflection of the enthusiasm, which both Paulson and Electrum have for this project and the enthusiasm for which John Paulson and I have for working with each other, I want to say this about John because a lot of shareholders know me very well. And they know that if there's anything that they can count on, it is complete transparency. John has been one of the very easiest partners I have ever worked with in my life. I've been blessed with several, starting with George Soros as my first partner back in the day, several decades ago. Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of the UAE, which has been unbelievably loyal, steadfast and a major booster of NOVAGOLD and John Paulson, whose commitment as a partner in multiple spheres, but particularly to NOVAGOLD, reached an unbelievable expression of solidarity with the taking out of Barrick last year.

We literally exchanged the most difficult and challenging partner that I have seen in my decades in this business to quite simply the easiest one. One who always puts himself in the shoes of the other person. When there were things that we needed for this deal so that he would be able to be met by shareholders with flowers and not stones, he did it. And he did it willingly and he did it openly because John understood as he is famous for understanding that there is a big trade in the world. And that big trade, which has only been ratified over the last couple of years, but which is in the early phases of the bull market is gold. Just as he did prior to the instability in 2008 and 2009, John saw the big trade and identified the right vehicles with which to leverage those convictions.

When John said as far as I'm concerned, NOVAGOLD is the best way to play gold. It will give me the biggest leverage in a jurisdiction that I love. He really put his money where his mouth is with great effects for all of us. Having John Paulson as the largest shareholder of the company is a tremendous blessing.

And something that I want to highlight to our shareholders is that Paulson, the group led by John and Marcelo Kim, have a highly successful track record of investments in the gold space, ranging from gold mine developers to major gold producers.

They were an essential ingredient in the transaction that allowed Agnico to become the largest gold producer in Canada with the acquisition of Detour and multiple other transactions, some of which I'm ultimately familiar with myself. In other words, what you're going to have with John Paulson and with me as co-chairs are you're going to have -- and it's almost frightening to imagine, as those who have heard me speak about Donlin, you're going to have the NOVAGOLD story told in stereo and to multiple audiences that are complementary to each other. We have intersections, but we also bring different ecosystems to bear, and all of that is being combined in a way that I truly believe 1 plus 1 can equal 3.

Now if we could go to the next slide, please. There's no question that the Paulson partnership has been catalytic. The strategic alignment reignited the share price when we were able to announce the transaction by which we extricated Barrick and removed that headwind with the tailwind that is Paulson. It was very, very clear that we were going to regain our status, which is one that we had for so many years of being the premier rated development story in our space.

The time that we lost, we were making up for. And in fact, at 1 point, the stock went from $3 to $14. It is my considered belief, and I know John shares this that we are going to make new highs. One of the critical path elements on this, at least from my standpoint, was being able to fulfill the very obviously smart bolt-on transaction of having a 1.3 million ounce gold producer 100% owned under the NOVAGOLD umbrella. John saw it. I saw it, and I have no doubt that when people look back on the share price, when people look back on what we had before, that this transaction will be viewed as being -- as was the transaction taking Barrick out in the first place, one of the most intelligent transactions in the gold space.

Million ounce producers are extremely rare, and they capture a tremendous premium. They make access to financing easier when it's 100% owned, but it also makes any kind of transaction going forward, whether it's industrial or financial, so much easier and friendlier as you can get a premium for a 100% owned asset that gives you all the leverage you could possibly ask for in a safe jurisdiction. This transaction, we look forward to being able to develop into the top-rated most highly valued gold stock in the development space.

If I could move to the next slide, Slide 14. And once again, reiterate what makes Donlin so special? Why am I so excited about it? And why has John Paulson, who has been a gold bull for as long as I have been so willing to make such a substantial investment? Donlin Gold is simply unique. The combination of attributes, it's long life, federally permitted with a production profile that will make it the largest single gold mine in the United States, a mine that starts with 40 million ounces in the M&I category at a grade 2.22 grams per tonne gold, which is double the industry average. The jurisdictional safety is second to none.

And ladies and gentlemen, I assure you that the premier valuation in the mining space will be given to those assets that are located in places where the rule of law is established where when you go to sleep at night, you know that when you wake up in the morning, it will not have been taken away from you, what you thought you owned the night before.

The blue sky of NOVAGOLD, of Donlin, is absolutely extraordinary. Only 7.5% of the land package that yielded the 40 million ounces, and we can see considerably more just along strike has actually been explored. There are historical reasons why that's happened, watch this space. This is a very, very different world. We are on private land, legally designated for mining. We have an experienced team that has been there and done that in building some of the biggest gold projects in the Western Hemisphere, and we enjoy excellent shareholder support and support from our native corporation partners who know that we adhere to the very best practices in ecological stewardship and that we are their partners now and in the future.

Let's go to Slide #15. And I want to reiterate this. As many of you who have been on our webcast before, know very well. Periodically, I will give updates on where I see the gold market. Earlier this year, before gold peaked, I spoke about a scenario that wasn't a requirement, but nonetheless, I felt was a very reasonable one that we would have a 1987 moment and that this would test people's resolve but that those who had the fortitude to be able to buy on weakness would be rewarded with making many, many times their money. The gold story is not just intact, it is actually better than ever. The demand drivers are absolutely there, whether it's as a historic safe haven asset diversification, inflation, deflation protection, demand from the emerging markets. The supply pressures have not been abated. The discovery rates are very poor. Ore grades continued to plunge. Central bankers remain buyers, not sellers unless they need some cash, in which case they're basically selling to the Chinese and the few others and the jurisdictional risk, which is making so many projects candidly uninvestable.

The gold story is completely intact. We are dealing right now with the classical pullback within a bull market. If I had told someone a year ago that people would be asking me the question, "gee, why is gold down to $4,000?" I would have shaken my head and said, "excuse me, you must have gotten that wrong". Okay, maybe I wouldn't have said that because I wouldn't have been so surprised. But someone else would have said, "What do you mean it's down to $4,000?" Oh, yes, it was at $5,500 from $3,000 wherever it was a year ago or $2,500. This is a bull market, have no illusions.

If I could move to the next slide, Slide 16. I've shown this slide before, but I want to reiterate it because Donlin will be one of the great beneficiaries of what I do believe will be seen as the greatest bull market of our generation. The greatest bull market of the previous generation. Maybe my generation, I suppose so, too, up till now, has been on a risk-adjusted basis, the secular bull market in the U.S. stock market. I'd like to point out what I said in October of last year.

As a curiosity, I want you to go back and look toward the mid-1980s. The blip, which barely is noticeable is the crash of 1987, that a lot of us thought was going to be the harbinger of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. You can't even see it as the Dow marched from 1,000 to a 45-plus leap, I guess it's now over 50, in value over the decades. What I was trying to point to is that you shouldn't be surprised when there is a blip. Those of you of my vintage would barely be able to see that blip in 1987. That's how meaningless it is. But at the time, we thought the world was coming to an end. In fact, when the Dow went from $36.50-ish to $26.50-ish, that was the greatest opportunity to buy. And the reason that you knew that this was an opportunity was because it had hit the $36.50.

That's what gold at $5,500 was when you're dealing now with gold having had a pullback. When this pullback is over, I do believe very strongly, we're going to see new highs in gold, in fact, precious metals in general. But gold, of course, is the stock with others, the warrants. All of the factors that made people bullish on gold going into the Gulf war or this most recent iteration of it, are not only in place, they have actually been accentuated.

Going on to Slide 17. So how does this relate to NOVAGOLD? I do believe that after this transaction, NOVAGOLD will be seen by institutional investors who want extraordinary leverage to gold, but only in a jurisdiction that will allow you to keep its fruits. This will be seen as the greatest way to play gold development. The leverage to gold is absolutely unquestionable. You really can't ask for better. The bar chart shows post-tax pro forma NPVs at various gold prices. With gold above $4,000 per ounce, the project reflects a value of over $50 billion at a 0% discount rate or approximately $20 billion at a 5% discount rate. Either way, being able to buy something that we expect to be 100% ownership of Donlin is going to give you tremendous leverage. Why do we put in a 0% discount rate? I'll tell you because that's where I believe that great assets in safe places, particularly those that can deliver great news through the drill bit, will be trading.

And for those of you who wonder if that's ever happened before, that was actually the norm before the early 1990s when Newmont went to Peru and open up the frontier spirits of the go where the gold is mentality. U.S. assets were valued with 0% discount rates versus the risky jurisdictions at the time, Canada, Australia and South Africa.

The world has changed, but one thing hasn't. Human nature is human nature. And if we are remotely right, John and myself, on where the world is going and what this will do to the gold price, I think that those of you who aren't located in jurisdictions with the rule of law are going to find that it's going to be very hard to keep what you think that you own. That's why we call it the sleeping well rule. If you sleep well, you can hold it forever. I've never lost a night sleep in 17 years about being in Alaska.

Alaska is one of the great jurisdictions in the world. It's already the second largest gold producing state in the United States. The permitting framework has been predictable. Rule of law is sacred. We enjoy tremendous support from stakeholders from not just the federal government's permitting, but also in the state, all the way to -- or all the way up, I should say, to our native corporation partners. So the bottom line is that with NOVAGOLD, after this transaction is concluded, you will have 100% ownership of what is amongst the best-in-class in scale, grade, a U.S. domicile deep partnerships at the shareholder level as well as in the state itself and tremendous torque to the share price. That is the NOVAGOLD investment thesis and opportunity. That is why John Paulson and I call it the Holy Grail.

So let's go with the next slide, just to go through some of those attributes which are unique to Donlin. I always start out by saying having the largest single gold producing mine in the United States will be absolute catnip to investors who understand that they need to get back into gold or established positions and speak to their broker and say, where can I find a great world-class asset with a great management team. We will be one of those beneficiaries. And when you look at our shareholder base, I doubt -- anything is possible, but I doubt the equilibrium level will not be where we are today.

So when we look at Donlin, there's the size of course, 40 million ounces. But the fact is it's a double the average grade of what the industry is showing now and those grades continue to fall. With higher grade, you get more ounces a tonne, lowering the cash cost per ounce so that our cost structure will be amongst the most favorable in the industry.

Next slide, please. Those of you who know me certainly know that I've made my fortunes for the last 33 years by focusing only on, what we call, category killer assets. But one thing that I found can allow an asset to become a 10x or more is being long the drill bit. We really believe at NOVAGOLD that the next big gold discovery could be at Donlin Gold or more colloquially, we very strongly believe that we have a shot that the next Donlin is at Donlin. Being a shareholder of NOVAGOLD allows you to be long that thesis and it's a legitimate one. The mineral reserves and resources that we have right now, the $40 million plus occupy only 3 kilometers of an 8-kilometer mineralized belt.

Again, that's only 7.5% of the broader land package. 92.5% has not been properly explored. And the reason is very simply put, our previous partners did not want that to happen while they still didn't own the rest of it. Meanwhile, what we do see is that both a long strike and at depth, we have multiple targets to be able to add millions of ounces of gold to our inventory, hopefully, tens of millions of ounces. I've been in this movie before. This is the single best way to be able to add cheap high grade for an open-pit gold ounces in the world. But more than that, it's in the part of the world that you want to be in for those discoveries, a part of the world that will allow you to keep it, which brings me to the next slide, and that is Alaska and permitting.

We've had permitting stability. We have our federal permits, the first time that the Bureau of Land Management and the Army Corps of Engineers ever did a joint permitting at the federal level, including the final EIS. State permitting is absolutely either completed or on track.

Alaska itself, a fabulous place to be doing business, great mining jurisdiction. As I said already, the second largest gold-producing state in the U.S. after Nevada. And what we see is that Alaska is welcoming for mining and the reception that we have had in Alaska has been absolutely wonderful.

Next slide, please. I'll highlight this quote by Governor Dunleavy, "getting the Donlin mine to production will be transformative for Alaska and provide hundreds of great paying jobs." I would add also the ancillary benefits of this, which has made this a cause championed by our senators and representative and of course, our native corporation partners, which you can see on Slide 22, the Calista Corporation and the Kuskokwim Corporation by combining, by giving us the land and surface use agreements have really put their lot in with us. And I can say that for them, as for the company, until Paulson came, they were frustrated by the fact that we were not allowed to move forward much as we wanted to do.

As soon as John Paulson came into this story, he flew with his team, with Marcelo Kim, with Michael Waldorf to Alaska to meet with the native corporations as well as government officials. But more than that, we spent much more time with our native corporation partners than anyone else -- anywhere else because there is nothing more important in our industry than being able to have social license. We are located on private land designated by law for mineral potential 5 decades ago. Our native corporations are, with the metal, our greatest assets, and we are absolutely committed to doing everything right by them. It's the least that we can do, and they deserve every aspect of whatever we can do to provide for them.

This transaction will be transformative, not just for the native corporations that we work with, TKC and Calista, but the way that the system works, is that whereas they get the top 30% of the royalty benefits, 70% goes to the rest of the native corporations in Alaska. In other words, the wealth gets spread. It's a very, very intelligent system that is very mining friendly on all levels.

Slide 23 shows our team and the first thing that I would highlight is that they have the trust of our native corporation partners. They have been working with them from the beginning hand in glove. This is a management team that can build and has built big mines. Greg Lang was President of Barrick North America for 8 years of Barrick and its predecessors veteran for 30 years. And he built on his watch, the Cortez mine. He brought in Richard Williams, who had just finished bringing online, under budget and on schedule, the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic, a much more challenging project in many ways than Donlin.

The team that they have also assembled since the arrival of Paulson, led by Frank Arcese, our Project Director, but now including Fluor as our lead EPCM with experts, WSP, Worley and Hatch in their respective fields, we are on the path to building the biggest gold mine in the United States with a Tier 1 management team.

So here is this path on Slide 24. These are the funding strategies and milestones. We are well funded to be able to finish our bankable feasibility study. We are on schedule and on budget. The timing between the completion of the BFS and the start of construction will depend on development and financing strategies informed by the BFS, certain engineering financing and project readiness activities will occur concurrently.

I can say that we will be advancing project financing in parallel with this timetable. We are very confident that the results will allow us to raise the capital we need. And we don't feel that we need to wait for that final document in order to begin a serious discussions on being able to raise that capital with very serious players, including government agencies, domestic and abroad. And it goes without saying, but should be very obvious, that being able to deal with 1 owner having 100% is not just an outcome that is accretive on every metric for our shareholders, but is accretive strategically.

What you are witnessing with this transaction is a surge of ideas and something that we hope that our existing shareholders will see as having been the right and smart culmination of a process that has taken us like a Phoenix from languishing to being what we believe will be shown to be the best performing development story in our space, but also an incredible entry point for new shareholders to take advantage of what's going on in the gold space, not just NOVAGOLD, and to take a look at this transaction and to say to themselves, "you know what, not only does this make sense, but it shows that the shareholders and the management team really have all of the shareholders' wishes, needs in mind when they do this kind of a deal."

On Slide 25, as you can see, we enjoy a very strong treasury position. We do intend to exercise the option that we have to prepay the Barrick promissory note for $100 million prior to the December 3, 2026 option expiration date. It's a highly accretive transaction, and it leaves us with a treasury strong enough through prudent financial management and capital allocation to take us exactly where we need to be for the next level of our growth.

On Slide 26, I'd like to point out that one of the greatest assets that NOVAGOLD enjoys is a tremendously supportive institutional as well as retail shareholder base. There is no better evidence of the kind of support that NOVAGOLD has been blessed with than the transaction last year that allowed John Paulson to become a 40% stakeholder directly into Donlin and to be willing to back NOVAGOLD's going from 50% to 60%. People shouldn't forget that. When I say that he has had our backs as shareholders from the beginning, I absolutely mean it. John has been a blessing for all of us. I can't tell you how excited I am to work with him. But I also have to say that if it weren't for the strength of our relationships with our friends, great investors at Lingotto, Fidelity, BlackRock, Vanguard, Capital, D.E. Shaw, First Eagle, VanEck and many others and more that I expect to show up on our shareholder roster.

We wouldn't be able to be in a position to say that we are now poised for exactly the kind of future we hoped for when we were able to exit the Barrick relationship and enter into literally the best kind of partnership that I could have imagined.

Nothing makes me happier than to think of John Paulson and I talking to shareholders and repeating as we do, the same beliefs, echoing the same values, just doing it in stereo. And with that, if I may, I would like to pass the baton to John himself to be able to give the concluding remarks before we go to Q&A.

Thank you. Thank you, Tom. And I just want to say what a great presentation from both of you. And I must say, I don't need to repeat myself, but I agree with all the slides you presented and with everything you said. And today is a very exciting day for me to follow you and Greg in this presentation and now to be a significant shareholder in NOVAGOLD. So of course, needless to say, I'm very, very excited about this combination. And let me say why in this Donlin, I want more exposure to gold for all the reasons that Tom articulated. And by buying Barrick's stake in Donlin and now merging into NOVAGOLD, it gives me the best possible option to the gold space that I can conceive of. For the 3 reasons that Tom articulated, one is the asset itself, it is one of the best in the world; second, the jurisdiction, the best jurisdiction in the world; and three, the value is extremely compelling.

When I look at -- and here's how I look at value, and we know no one can predict the stock price in the future. But I'll just lay out a couple of valuation metrics for the 4 companies that I'm involved with.

NOVAGOLD, as Tom articulated, has 40 million measured and indicated ounces and a market value today of about $4.2 billion. That comes out to only $119 per ounce. So when you buy the stock today, that's the implied price per ounce of NOVAGOLD's resources. We also control a company called Perpetua, which is a little further down the line in terms of production. We've raised the financing and on permitted and we started construction. That trades at more or less 4x the multiple of gold. It trades about $400 per ounce.

And then we also have a stake in Artemis, which have been long-term shareholders that has followed the same progression that NOVAGOLD and Perpetua has. That trades at almost $900 an ounce today. And then the greatest company perhaps in the gold space today, Agnico, with heavy concentration in North American great production. They trade at $1,300 an ounce.

So to me, the way to progress value is exactly the plan we have, to follow the steps to ultimately become a producing company. And as we do, I believe our valuation metrics will change. My goal in buying Donlin was always from day 1 to merge it into NOVAGOLD, buying the stake from Barrick was just the first step. And from an initial period, we always thought about the possibility of putting our 2 great companies, 2 companies together.

We went through all the benefits of having NOVAGOLD now own 100% of the stock, and I'll swap my stake to shares at NOVAGOLD, which is the perfect outcome. So instead of having 3 separate companies manage this Donlin asset, Donlin Gold Holdings, the company that owns our stake, Donlin Gold, which has its own structure and NOVAGOLD, its own structure, we will now combine those 3 structures into one with NovaGold owning 100%, and that will allow a lot of efficiencies and expedite production. Our goal is ultimately to become a producing mine. Greg is leading that effort for us. We've put together the best engineers, financiers to work moving towards the bankable feasible study, later FID and after that, construction and production.

So let me just close and say I couldn't be happier with this merger. This was my dream from the very beginning to consolidate Donlin under 1 ownership, under NOVAGOLD, I am ecstatic to be on the board, with Tom and to be co-chair with Tom to advance this project forward for the benefit of all shareholders. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]

The first question comes from Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities.

This is Henry Hearle on for Nick. Congratulations on this transformative transaction. I first wanted to ask, how long has this been going on in the background? And then what ultimately makes this the best time to execute?

Greg, do you want to take that or shall I?

No. Why don't you take that one, Tom?

Okay. As John referenced his vision and I've had this vision for nearly -- nearly 20 years, was that 1 day, NovaGold would own 100% of Donlin. For all of the reasons that John laid out, both in terms of the mechanics of simplifying, of being able to consolidate, of management, for all of those reasons, but also strategically, it was very, very obvious that the world had changed and has changed over the last couple of years regarding the public participation. And by public, I mean actually state participation in the gold space. My strength of relationships is primarily sovereign wealth funds. John's strength of relationships has been very well evidenced is domestic. The combination means that we have the very best opportunity to be able to achieve a financing that will take us into production on the best possible terms.

This is only accentuated by being able to have one-stop shopping for any discussions, whether they would be with institutions, government agencies, potential partners from the industry who might want to engage in the project implementation. There are a whole host of things that are completely simplified, which has a bearing not just financially, but also in terms of our agility. So I would say that this has always been the smart move. The question was how to make sure that it is demonstrably accretive to our shareholders, both financially, the metrics that John was willing to allow in terms of discounting his share so that it would benefit from the outset, all shareholders, but also in terms of the corporate governance, those things which give shareholders the comfort that what you see is what you get, you have someone with 19.99% voting stake, which is entirely balanced with 2 members on an 11-member board. In other words, the company's independence has been ratified by John.

What he's expressing is this ability to be able to have the benefit of adding to the luster of NOVAGOLD by making sure that his stake in Donlin is acquired, allowing us to have all the benefits of 100% ownership, but without being held hostage in any way. For NovaGold shareholders, this really is the ideal outcome. And it's possible, we should have done this sooner, but as the Chinese proverb goes, the best time to plant the tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today. And the fact is that the stars aligned and allowed us to be able to have even more accretive transaction now than we might have had even a year ago. So the outcome from our standpoint and for John's can't be better. It is the perfect example of 1 plus 1 equals 3 or 4, a win-win.

Understood. And then if you just had to pick one of those several benefits of this transaction that you just went through, which one are you yourself most excited about? And which one should shareholders be most excited about?

Well, let me -- I'll start by speaking for myself, but then I think it's more important actually to hear from Greg because he's the one at the mine face and understands how this transaction changes the lives of everybody who works with and engages with Donlin. From my standpoint, the things that I do. And to the extent that I have an expertise, the flattening of the cap table as it were in a macro sense and allowing us to be able to have the maximum leverage to Donlin in a simple way as possible, is going to maximize our access to the best kind of capital. And that can come in many forms.

I do believe that you will see in short order that we are making concrete steps on working on financing in parallel with all of the things that Greg is doing. But I think shareholders should see that as being a very important signal that we mean business and that we're getting ready for that. And we are bullish on gold, and we are doing things while there isn't that much noise in the system.

When the gold market recovers, I believe it will do so with a vengeance, and I want us to be in a position to capitalize on that shift in momentum in the best way possible. I know that John feels exactly likewise. And so that to me is extremely important because I'm focused as the interface so often with shareholders on wanting to make sure that they understand that as Will Danoff used to say about me, "I'm the owner who lives above the store."

Well, I'm co-owner who lives above the store with John Paulson, a wonderful cohabitation, if ever there was one. But we are a shareholder-friendly and committed to maximizing the value of NOVAGOLD shares as much as any to investors in the gold mining space. I'd like to say that we are not only a safe pair of hands, each of us, but together, I think -- and I hope that we will prove to be the most formidable in being able to extract the greatest value from NOVAGOLD for the shareholders.

The examples that he cited of Perpetua, of Artemis, of Agnico, which he was so helpful in being able to position itself as the premier rated company in the space. These are all great examples and each one of them argues for us to be able to multiply our share price in the not-too-distant future. That's our agenda. That's my agenda. So I focus on those issues. But for analysts and for everyone else who wants to know actually how does this affect how the project goes forward. Greg, take them through it, please.

Sure. Well, I think -- yes, it's a great question. I think one, it's many benefits for us. But first off, it really simplifies the management of the asset. Any time you simplify something, you can move more expeditiously. And it creates -- for the outside partners and government agencies, it creates really a single point of contact now. And it's -- in the future, it will help facilitate financing and give us more flexibility in any strategic options. But I think also just the putting Donlin Gold inside of NOVAGOLD, it will be better for the employees. It will certainly make all the decisions and management of the asset simpler for everybody. So we're looking forward to that as well as the long-term benefits that we've articulated through our presentation.

Great. Thank you, Greg and Dr. Kaplan. And to you and the rest of the NOVAGOLD team, continued best of luck.

The next question comes from Raj Ray with BMO Capital Markets.

I have a couple of questions. One follow-up on the financial flexibility that Dr. Kaplan mentioned. And it was great color in terms of understanding the strength that he and Mr. Paulson brings together. But I also wanted to ask whether -- and as you have looked through various financing options, is there -- does this structure make certain fundings more available now that were not achievable under the previous joint ownership model. And then I do have a follow-up question on the Glenfarne LOI signed earlier this year. And if you can share any color on the progress that will -- that has been made over the last few months.

Raj, good to hear your voice. As far as the facilitating financing, I think there's no question. Would we have been precluded from different sources of capital because of the structure? Hard to say. I can't tell you that, that would necessarily have been the case, but would it have complicated matters of that is metaphysical certitude. Being able to talk directly to one owner with one platform is exponentially easier than having to go through 3 different structures when you're talking about sovereign wealth funds or government agencies.

You've seen the remarkable job that Paulson has done with EXIM for Perpetua. Well, being a U.S. company, 100% owned. That will be the largest single gold mine in the United States at a time when people are going to see very shortly that if anything, there's a resource nationalism that's going to be taking place with regard to gold.

This is clearly, clearly accretive for shareholders strategically. And strategic accretion lends itself to what we always want to see we can achieve, which is premier valuation. We want to be the best performing gold development stock in this space.

And that comes from being able to have the combination of scale, production profile, grade, cost structure, exploration potential, mine life, all of the attributes that go into creating a Tier 1 story and which we believe we have in its combination, a unique Tier 1 story. But it's not just that. You get a premier valuation when you are sponsored properly by shareholders who do live above the store and with management teams that are focused on unlocking the value and valuation for shareholders.

This transaction by any lens, any prism through which you seek to look at it is a smart one. It makes sense. It's not a diversification, as Peter Lynch would say. It is the perfect example of a bolt-on transaction that will allow us to become on a 100% basis, a 1.3 million ounce a year gold producer.

Do the math on what those gold producers are. But again and it's not just that we'll be producing that much, it's that we will be producing that much for so long. The lifespan of Donlin, which candidly, we believe we've just scratched the surface, is more like a porphyry copper.

It just will go on for decades and decades and decades. And I think that is what attracted John to say, this is the right asset in the right place, being a gold bull at the right time. I know that it's certainly been the case for me. And I've no doubt that the best is absolutely yet to come, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Yes. I will also say, if I may, the problem before with the ownership structure with Barrick is neither party could move without the other consent. And while NOVAGOLD wanted to expand drilling, expand the development of the mine, Barrick was -- didn't want to move. So they weren't able to move. Even though when we bought the Barrick stake, Tom and I and NOVAGOLD were completely aligned, it's still a cumbersome structure. So now having everything under one roof, NovaGold owning 100%, there's no one to negotiate with. They can move, now NovaGold or we can move at whatever speed with no conflict whenever we want. And that's the biggest, I think, most important change with this merger.

Right, and Raj. Turning to your question on Glenfarne. For those that aren't aware, Glenfarne is leading the effort to build a natural gas pipeline to bring gas from the north slope into the Cook Inlet in Alaska. And this is very important for Donlin because our current plan was to import natural gas into the Cook Inlet, put it in a pipeline and deliver it to the site. This pipeline that Glenfarne is advancing would bring a cheaper supply of gas into the Cook Inlet, which would have broad benefits for not just Donlin, but all of Alaska. So we follow their progress with interest. We've -- as you noted, we have a nonbinding letter of intent with Glenfarne and we're actively engaged with them. And as we follow their progress like everybody else through the Alaska media, which as you might imagine, covers it in great detail, and they're working with the state and various government officials.

So we wish them great success. It's an important project for Alaska and for the U.S. energy independence.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Greg Lang for closing remarks.

Well, everybody, it's a fantastic day for NovaGold. Thank you for joining our webcast and hearing from myself, Dr. Kaplan and John Paulson. Have a good day.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the NovaGold Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. We are pleased that you have joined us for NovaGold's 2026 Second Quarter Webcast and Conference Call and for an update on the Donlin Gold project. On today's call, we have NovaGold's President and CEO, Greg Lang; and Peter Atomic, NovaGold's Vice President and CFO. At the end of the webcast, we will take questions by phone and by e-mail. Additionally, we will respond to those received throughout the call.

I would like to remind you, as stated on Slide 3, any statements made today may contain forward-looking information such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve the risks detailed in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation.

With that, I will now turn the presentation over to NovaGold's President and CEO, Greg Lang. Greg?

Thank you, Melanie. Why NovaGold? I think it's useful to reflect on the value created through the company's long-term commitment to advancing the Donlin Gold project. Over the past 2 decades, extensive drill programs have significantly expanded Donlin's reserves and resources.

Key milestones for the company occurred in 2008, 2010, and in Electrum and Paulson, okay, major shareholders, a position they hold to this day. company successfully advanced permitted for the Donlin Gold project. representing an important step in its development.

About a year ago, NovaGold in partnership with Paulson acquired Barrick's interest in the Donlin Gold project. For the first time in 13 years, the company went back to the market to fund the purchase of its increased stake in Donlin Gold, the bankable feasibility study, and repay the promissory note to Barrick.

This transaction simplifies the ownership structure and unlocked meaningful value for shareholders. These events combined with the project's attributes of scale, grade, location and production profile, underpin the value creation and incredible investment opportunity. Any of our shareholders view NovaGold as an unexpired warrant on an ounce of production.

On Slide 6, the chart illustrates post-tax net present value at a variety of gold prices. With the gold price currently over $4,000 an ounce, this reflects the value of over $50 billion at a 0 discount rate for about $20 billion at a 5% discount rate. This projection underscores the substantial economic potential of the Donlin Gold project in the current market environment.

As highlighted on Slide 7, Donlin Gold is positioned to become one of the biggest annual producers in the world with a projected output averaging over 1 million ounces a year [indiscernible] 27 year mine life. Looking at Slide 8. Dondon Gold post approximately 40 million ounces of measured and indicated resources at an average grade of 2.25 grams per tonne, which is more than double the industry average.

Projects, scale, grade and long life position it to perform strongly across a wide range of gold market cycles. Moving to Slide 9. We believe there are significant exploration opportunities beyond the defined resources in the ACMA and Lewis pits, as illustrated in the graphic in the upper right-hand corner.

These resources cover only 3 kilometers of an approximate 8-kilometer gold-bearing trend, which is only a small portion of our overall land package. This underscores the substantial potential to increase our reserves and significantly extend the mine life through further exploration.

Slide 10 outlined Donlin Gold, current permitting status and underscores the advantages of its location in Alaska, the second-largest gold producing state in the U.S. Alaska has a well-established regulatory framework and emphasis on responsible resource development provides a stable and supportive foundation for long-term mining operations.

To date, ongoing collaboration with state and federal agencies have been constructive regulatory decisions affirming the rigor of the review process, we continue to support the state of Alaska in defending the Clean Water Act Section 401 certification, which is the only remaining challenge at the state level.

[indiscernible] arguments were heard on June 3, and we anticipate a decision within a year. In Federal Litigation, U.S. District Court in Alaska directed the Corp of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management to supplement the current EIS and analyze a larger hypothetical tailings release.

It's important to remember that all permits remain in place while the litigation is ongoing. Court of engineers and cooperating agencies will review and prepare the draft supplemental EIS, which is anticipated to be published in September of this year.

Moving to Slide 11. We highlight a quote from Governor Mike Dunlevy, we expressed strong backing for responsible research development in Alaska, including the Donlin Gold project. We appreciate his advocacy. We look forward to continuing an open and constructive communication with him and his team.

On Slide 12, we highlight our long-standing collaboration and ongoing engagement with Turista and TKC, whose roles as private land owners and owners of the mineral rights are integral to Donlin's success. Their shared commitment to responsible development helps for job creation, long-term economic opportunity and the preservation of cultural heritage in the Y-K region, all grounded in deep local knowledge and stewardship.

Moving to Slide 13. In May, we released our 2025 sustainability report, which reflects our ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship, strong safety performance, broader social responsibilities that are embedded in the project.

NovaGold also takes pride in maintaining strong governance practices across all aspects of board oversight and governance. Moving over to Slide 14. NovaGold is supported by a seasoned management team with a proven track record in mine development throughout the Americas. This is further strengthened by the Donlin Gold project execution team, led by Frank [indiscernible] along with contractors like Fluor, WSP, Worley and Hatch. They all bring extensive experience, position Donlin to advance efficiently, responsibly and with a strong focus on project execution.

I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Peter Adamek, to discuss our second quarter financial results. Peter?

Thank you, Greg. Turning to our operating performance on Slide 16. NovaGold reported a fiscal 20,262nd quarter net loss of $25.5 million or $0.06 per share. Noble's net loss during the second quarter decreased by $28.8 million from the comparable prior year period primarily due to a $39.6 million noncash charge recognized in the prior year related to warrants issued under a backstop agreement signed in April 2025 and higher interest income in 2026, partially offset by higher expenditures at Donlin Gold due to ongoing bankable feasibility study activities and higher G&A expenses at NovaGold. .

The company's share of Donlin Gold expenses in the second quarter of 2026 was $10.4 million higher than the comparative prior period due to ongoing 2026 activities by Fluor WSP Worley and Hatch to advance the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study. Unlike the comparative prior year period, the company's second quarter 2026 results also reflect NovaGold's 60% interest in Donlin Gold.

G&A expenses at NovaGold increased in the second of 2026 by $3.1 million from the comparative prior year period primarily due to higher professional fees share-based compensation and employee compensation. Professional fees were elevated in the second quarter and in the first 6 months of 2026, but remain generally in line with quarterly cadence expectations and are expected to decline during the remainder of the year. .

On Slide 17, our treasury comprising cash and term deposits decreased by $22.3 million to $370.2 million during the second quarter reflecting Donlin Gold's funding of $16.3 million and NovaGold corporate G&A costs of $6.7 million, partially offset by $4 million in interest income. .

Corporate G&A expenditures during the second quarter increased by $2.3 million, and our share of Donlin Gold funding increased by $9.5 million compared to the prior year period for reasons discussed on the previous slide. .

Moving to Slide 18. Our treasury at the end of the second quarter sits at a very robust $370.2 million. NovaGold is well funded, enabling us to complete the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study in 2027, exercise our option to prepay the Barrick promissory note later this year and cover our corporate G&A costs for at least the next 12 months. Our cash expenditures in the second quarter and for the first 6 months of fiscal 2026 remained generally in line with our 2026 budget and we remain on track to meet our 2026 guidance.

I will now turn the presentation over to Greg to discuss the second quarter highlights.

Thank you, Peter. I will now review the key highlights and activities from the second quarter. As highlighted on Slide 20, Donlin Gold continued to extensively engage with government and regional stakeholders and support local programs across the Y-K region. Key focus remain direct engagement with regional communities where we conducted outreach alongside Calista and TKC to strengthen relationships and to support ongoing dialogue.

The subsistence Community Advisory Committee met a few times in the first half of 2006. The [ Veredus ] meeting focused on subsistence and the barge communication plan. Donlin Gold team also anticipated in several major Alaska industry and legislative events. Alaska Day on the Hill and the Alaska Mining Forum along a broad coalition of trade associations.

In parallel, we remain an active engagement with state and federal policymakers on key areas such as permitting, workforce development and infrastructure.

Lastly, we provided briefings to the U.S. Senate campaigns and the YK Regional Health Board to ensure their continued awareness and alignment on project activities. All of these efforts support Donlin Gold's long-term objectives of advancing workforce development, strengthening regional economic participation, and progressing the project in a responsible manner.

Slide 21 highlights the key technical updates and accelerating momentum achieved in the second quarter. Marked by meaningful progress across all primary work streams. Under Fluor's leadership, the integration of major work packages and ethical work streams with specialist contractors, WSP, Worley and Hatch are progressing to support the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study.

Key updates include infrastructure advancement for the on-site power plant and the natural gas pipeline, pressure oxybation circuit and oxygen plant. Strategic integration, where Fluor is coordinating all specialized contracts with a single consolidated execution framework to improve schedule efficiency and cost accuracy.

Operational foundation with a disciplined engineering approach to bring key components closer to completion, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality bankable feasibility study with a targeted completion 2027. Building on this momentum, Donlin Gold remains exceptionally well positioned as 1 of the world's premier undeveloped gold deposits.

As shown on Slide 22, the second quarter of the year has delivered meaningful progress across all the key work streams, further strengthening the project's development trajectory. As a result, Diamond is increasingly well positioned for its next phase of advancement, supported by a series of important recent milestones.

Sonangol is building out the project team in advancing key state, site and technical activities in support of the bankable feasibility study.

These activities include geotechnical drilling and materials assessments along with planned [indiscernible] report and access road corridor as well as along the proposed natural gas pipeline route. In addition, the company will continue to support permitting activities while maintaining strong engagement, Trista, PKC, local communities and government stakeholders as it advances towards the next stage of project development.

We deeply appreciate the continued support and confidence of our long-term shareholders, some of which are shown on Slide 23. NovaGold remains committed to responsibly advancing the Donlin Gold project and achieving key milestones of fulfilling all its commitments to local communities. We extend our sincere appreciation to our shareholders, stakeholders, our Board of Directors for their steadfast trust and support.

And we express our deep appreciation to the Donlin Gold team for their dedication, hard work. We look forward to even further progress and more exciting opportunities in the years ahead. In closing, Slide 24 summarizes the core attributes that distinguish Donlin Gold as a truly unique asset within the global gold sector.

The project is defined by exceptional scale, high-grade open pit mineralization, long life low projected operating costs and meaningful exploration potential all in a stable jurisdiction, placing it among the select group of world-class gold development projects. with approximately 40 million ounces, grading 2.25 grams per tonne, project already stands apart from the others.

Supported by an experienced leadership team, and strong collaboration with local community landowners, project remains well positioned for disciplined advancement and long-term value creation. Operator, we can now open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley.

Yes. Thank you. So just on the professional fees, obviously, we saw a big increase. And you just mentioned that you expect the second half to see lower levels than in the first half. Is this already happening you think, in the third quarter? Or is it more just in the fourth quarter? That would be my first question.

Yes, I'm happy to take that. Thank you for the question. Yes, these fees were just kind of ongoing fees related to the transaction that transpired at the end of last year. In connection with our increase of the 10%, and we are expecting those fees to start tapering off in the third quarter of this year.

Thank you, Peter. And maybe, Greg, do you have a sense already as to when in 2027, you may finish the DFS? Or it's too early to tell?

Yes. Thank you for joining the call this morning, Carlos. We've guided that we expect to finish the bankable feasibility study in the first half of 2027. The work is proceeding well with Fluor Worley, WSP and Hatch contributing their information to the study. So it's progressing as we expected. So we'll look for something early in first half of next year.

Melanie, we have another question from the audio line. The question comes from Fredrik Bolton with BMO Capital Markets.

Thank you for the presentation. Greg and Peter. Just one question. Are you able to give us a bit more color on how financing decisions are going for the Donlin project.

Sure, Fredrik. Thank you for participating in our call this morning. We've been going through a process with our partner, the team at Paulson on selecting financial advisers for the project, and we anticipate making an announcement in that regard in the coming weeks. But it's moving ahead as we consider what options are ahead of us for financing done.

We have a few questions coming from the line. The first is from Jeff Neiman. What is the current estimate for development of the mine?

I think I'll break that down into 2 pieces. I think the first 1 is the timing. I think as we've mentioned on our call, our main focus is completing the bankable feasibility study, and that's about a year out we will include in the study will be an execution plan, and we'll be able to provide significantly more detail on the path forward for the Donlin project. .

In conjunction with the completion of the feasibility study. So that's moving ahead. And the time line on financing, that's -- as I mentioned earlier, we've engaged financial advisers and we'll be updating the markets in due course.

Great. The second question is for Mr. Fritz. Could you comment on the expected time line regarding the Alaska Supreme Core decision on the water quality certification in particular, whether this could potentially remain pending beyond the proposed completion of the BFS.

All right. I think it's important to remember that -- there were 3 cases before the Alaska Supreme Court that worked their way all the way to the Supreme Court. Two of those have already been ruled on in favor of the Donlin project and the permitting agencies. .

The final case is regarding the 401 certification. Brief oral arguments were made earlier this month. And typically, the court in Alaska takes about a year to issue a ruling. At this stage, it's also important to remember that our permits remain in force during this time. So I think the permits court cases influence our thinking. No, they do not. And I would expect that they will be resolved sometime approximately when the feasibility study is due to be completed and certainly before a construction decision is made. .

Great. I believe these are all the questions we have online Aisha, unless you have something else on your side?

No, we don't have any more audio questions. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Greg Lang for closing remarks.

All right. Well, everybody. We appreciate you taking the time to join the Q2 call for NovaGold. Thank you. Thank you.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the NOVAGOLD's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Galen. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased that you have joined us for NOVAGOLD's 2026 First Quarter Webcast and Conference Call and for an update on the Donlin Gold project. On today's call, we have NOVAGOLD's Chairman, Dr. Thomas Kaplan; President and CEO, Greg Lang; and NOVAGOLD's Vice President and CFO, Peter Adamek.

At the end of the webcast, we will take questions by phone. Additionally, we will respond to questions received via e-mail and the webcast. I would like to remind you, as stated on Slide 3, any statements made today may contain forward-looking information such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve risks detailed in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation.

With that, I will now turn the presentation over to NOVAGOLD's President and CEO, Greg Lang. Greg?

Thank you, Melanie. On Slide 5, we highlight the key attributes that make the Donlin project unique in the gold industry. Donlin has a combination of scale, grade, long life, low operating costs and significant upside potential in the exploration areas, and we're in a safe jurisdiction.

With about 40 million ounces of reserves and resources at 2.25 grams, Donlin has got grade better than twice the industry average. Our known resource occupies only 5% of our total land holdings and there is considerable potential to increase the strong reserve base. We're also fortunate to have long-term committed shareholders who understand the value in an asset like Donlin.

Moving on to Slide 6. This chart illustrates the value of Donlin and a variety of gold prices. With today's gold price approaching the upper end of this chart, the project has a net present value of almost $24 billion at a 5% discount rate. This underscores the leverage and significant economic potential of Donlin in the current gold price environment.

As highlighted on Slide 7, Donlin will be a big mine. It will average over 1 million ounces a year during its 30-year mine life and about 1.3 million ounces the first 10 years. This asset production makes it really unique and stands out in the gold space.

Grade is one of the most important attributes of a mining project. At 2.25 grams, Donlin is twice the industry average. It's this high grade that contributes to Donlin's very low operating costs at less than $1,000 an ounce.

This slide really highlights the significant exploration potential at Donlin. Our known resources reside in the ACMA and Lewis areas, as shown on Slide #9. These areas represent only 3 kilometers of an 8-kilometer gold bearing system. When the time is right, we will continue to explore both along strike and at depth, and there's tremendous potential right in our own backyard.

Turning to Slide 10. This slide is a summary of the status of our permitting. We've completed the federal permitting process and we're wrapping up the state permitting. We've worked well with the federal and state agencies over the years, and our permits are in good standing. The only remaining permit in Alaska is for the dam safety certificates and the design packages have been submitted to the state, and we anticipate approval well in advance of needing this permit.

Slide 11 highlights a recent statement from Governor Mike Dunleavy up in Alaska. Governor Dunleavy as well as the other elected officials in Alaska have long been staunch advocates for the Donlin project and the importance of what it can mean to the state of Alaska in the Y-K region.

On Slide 12, we highlight our long-standing engagement with our Native Alaskan partners, Calista owns the mineral rights and TKC owns the surface rights. We've got a life of mine agreements in place with both of these entities. And it's really important to remember that this is private land that was designated for mining activities. Both Calista and TKC have an owner's interest in seeing this project go forward.

Moving on to Slide 13. We are starting to fill out the Donlin Gold feasibility team. Frank Arcese is our project manager. He's been around the industry for almost 40 years and is very well seasoned with big projects in remote locations. We've hired Fluor, one of the industry's leading engineering firms to lead the bankable feasibility study. Under Fluor, we have 3 specialty firms, Worley, who was responsible for the pipeline; Hatch, who is a leader in pressure oxidation and oxygen plants; and WSP, a firm specializes in, among other things, power plants. These are all industry-leading firms that will help us with the bankable feasibility study and taking the project forward into construction and, ultimately, operation.

I will now turn the call over to NOVAGOLD's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Peter Adamek. Peter?

Thank you, Greg. Turning to our operating performance on Slide 15. NOVAGOLD reported a fiscal 2026 first quarter net loss of $15.4 million. This represents an increase of $6.3 million from the comparable prior year period primarily due to higher expenditures at Donlin Gold following the commencement of the bankable feasibility study related activities including hiring for key roles on the Donlin Gold project team and higher G&A expenses at NOVAGOLD.

The company's share of Donlin Gold expenses in the first quarter of 2026 was $3.9 million higher than the comparative prior year period due to camp remaining open this winter and increased project activities following Fluor being awarded the lead engineering role for the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study in early February 2026.

Unlike the comparative prior year period, the company's first quarter results also reflect NOVAGOLD's 60% interest in Donlin Gold. NOVAGOLD's G&A expenses increased in the first quarter of 2026 by $3.9 million from the comparable prior year period, primarily due to higher professional fees and share-based compensation. Professional fees were elevated during the first quarter but remained in line with quarterly cadence expectations and are expected to decline from first quarter levels during the remainder of the year and remain within previously issued 2026 guidance.

On Slide 16, our treasury increased by $277.4 million to $392.5 million at the end of the first quarter, primarily due to closing of a private placement of approximately [Technical Difficulty].

NOVAGOLD intends to use the net proceeds from the private placement for expenditures associated with Donlin Gold activities, exercise of the company's prepayment option on the Barrick promissory note and general corporate purposes. Excluding the financing, corporate G&A costs during the first quarter increased by $3 million, and our share of Donlin Gold funding increased by $11.9 million compared to the prior year.

Moving to Slide 17. Our treasury at the end of the first quarter sits at a robust $392.5 million. NOVAGOLD is well funded, enabling it to complete the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study in 2027 and exercised its option to prepay the Barrick promissory note later this year. Our operating cash expenditures in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 remained in line with our 2026 budget and guidance.

And with that, I will now turn the presentation back over to Greg to discuss first quarter highlights.

Thank you, Peter. Slide 18 highlights our continuing engagement with the communities in and around Alaska. We work closely with Calista and TKC on all of these programs as well as preparing them and the local people for ultimate employment at the mine. All of these programs are a testament to our commitment to total engagement with the local communities and ultimately preparing a workforce for the Donlin project.

Turning to Slide 19. During the first quarter, we announced the advancement of the Donlin Gold bankable feasibility study as well as additional engineering firms have been engaged for very specialized components of this study. This integrated approach leverages the deep technical expertise that all of these firms bring to the bankable feasibility study.

On Slide 20, another development we follow with a lot of interest is the proposal to bring gas down from the North Slope into the Cook Inlet, ultimately tying into the header that will feed the Donlin project. We've got a nonbinding letter of intent with Glenfarne to evaluate natural gas supply from this proposed pipeline. This pipeline has the potential to be a real game changer for Donlin, giving us access to cheap, reliable and long-term natural gas. We will continue to advance discussions with Glenfarne as the project moves forward and where they might potentially fit in supporting the infrastructure for the Donlin project.

Last year was really a transformational year for the company. Post the Barrick transaction, we've steadily made meaningful progress to advance the Donlin Gold project through a bankable feasibility study. We're building up the team with expertise to do this. In a while, we will continue to engage with our local communities.

Turning to Slide 22. This highlights our top shareholders, we have always valued their long-term commitment to the project into the company. I think it's important to note that Paulson, who is now our 40% partner with Donlin has been a major shareholder in NOVAGOLD for over 15 years. This slide also highlights the coverage that NOVAGOLD has from various banks.

NOVAGOLD is focused on delivering on every single commitment we've made, advancing the Donlin Gold project through a bankable feasibility study and achieving all of these milestones.

Operator, we are now prepared to open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Francesco Costanzo with Scotiabank.

I'll just start with the BFS. I appreciate that you'll be giving a more fulsome update on the BFS time line around midyear. But given that you've now awarded the engineering contracts for the project, can we consider that the clock on the 12- to 18-month time line to complete the BFS has now started?

I would say, yes, certainly, we have got all of the firms in place to do the bankable feasibility study. Fluor hit the ground running. They're obviously the key driver in this. And from where we're sitting today, I'd say, give or take a year, we will have it wrapped up.

That's great. And my second question is just going to move to project financing. Just this week, we saw Perpetua Resources announced the approval of a $2.7 billion loan from EXIM. Now though the projects are obviously different, I'm wondering if you see any read-throughs on the potential debt financing availability for a project that offers significant domestic investment in the U.S., such as Donlin?

Shall I take that one, Greg? Do you want to begin?

Sure. Go ahead, Tom.

I think that it's very fair to say that when you're building the biggest gold mine in the United States, you're going to have multiple sources of financing that come to the floor. And if I had to hazard a guess, I would say that governments will be a very large component in that. There is, of course EXIM. I believe that EXIM is very well aware of our project. And for many reasons that you've cited, the domestic component of this story, not only being the largest gold mine in the United States, but being located in a place where it becomes a nexus for the energy story in Alaska, which is of extraordinary importance to this administration.

Yes, I think it is fair to say that we should expect that the U.S. government has a serious interest in this story. But equally, I would point out that at least 2 Asia Pacific countries, Japan and South Korea have made very substantial commitments to investment in the United States. $550 billion in the case of Japan, $350 billion in the case of Korea. And both of those have advanced in terms of execution over the last several months. I think that it is fair to say that one of the things that we do expect them to be interested in is being able to make quite a statement with Donlin as the biggest, but also as enjoying the fruits of location, location, location.

If you're on the Pacific Coast of Alaska, you have an opportunity to really develop relationships that are natural in terms of meshing together. The Japanese are very large buyers of gold and the South Korean Central Bank. Several months ago, announced that it was going to go back into the market to add to its reserves. Their timing was actually quite good. The prospect for us to be able to utilize the benefits, for example, of offtake agreements of 1.3 million, 1.4 million ounces a year, clearly make us a bit of a unicorn in terms of the ability to attract financing. And I'm not even talking about the other traditional sources. I hope that helps.

The next question is from Soundarya Iyer with B. Riley Securities.

Congratulations on this, the quarterly update. My question is on the exploration work. So as you mentioned in your opening remarks, the current resource is just 5% of the land package. So have you planned any 2026 exploration drill program or budget to test further targets? Or is that a priority after the bankable feasibility study?

I'll start with that one. We have putting together an exploration plan, more I would describe it as general reconnaissance work throughout our land holdings and the area in and around Donlin. So I think that's getting started. But you have to remember, I think there's a lot of snow left on the ground in Alaska. So it will be another month or 2 before we really can get on the ground. But it's more general recon. We've been studying Donlin. We believe the next Donlin is at Donlin, and we're in a modest program starting to evaluate that.

If I may add just a few words on that because the drill bit has been my best friend over the last 3 decades. If I may echo Greg's comment, and this is obviously a very forward-looking statement. But being that for reasons belonging to Barrick's ultimate belief that this would fall into their lap one day or the other. The 95% of the property that's been unexplored is all prime real estate. And we believe that in addition to what we see as low-hanging fruit to add tens of millions of ounces within the 8-kilometer belt, 5 kilometers of which just simply have been drilled, shown mineralization, but there was never any follow-up because the deposit was already so big that it was thought you leave that for later.

But in addition to the 45 million ounces of resources that we already see, it's low-hanging fruit to add, in our view, tens of millions of more ounces. But we are looking for that at Donlin. In a bear market, people really don't care about exploration results. And so I'm very glad that you asked that question because in a bull market, great drill results can cause the stock price to double or more. And we do expect to be adding a lot more ounces in the immediate vicinity of the property as we go from the 3 kilometers to the 8-kilometer mineralization. But at the same time, what Greg is referencing is that we are undertaking a project or property-wide analysis in order to identify the best drill targets that are extrinsic of the 8 kilometers. Because in our view, the odds that this occurrence is alone.

Well, mother nature is very fickle. We know that the odds are very long in exploration. But I've been in this movie before. And I found that in the case of precious metals, and in the case of hydrocarbons, where we made our biggest killing at Electrum, Wildcatting is something that can take a 10x opportunity to 100x. And fortunately, we have a partner who doesn't see exploration success as being a challenge. But John Paulson and his team completely have aligned with us on understanding that good news through the drill bit is a multiple expander. And if this turns out to be what we hope it is and it's a hope, this is really the next Carlin. And the partners are aligned in being able to identify that.

So when you think of the relatively low cost of exploration versus the high reward, I think you can understand that the partners in Donlin are very keenly aware that we may just be scratching the surface in this story. It remains one of the greatest exploration stories in the world, and that will unfold for the market.

Yes. I mean I totally agree with that. My question was on that front that exploration work could gain more value in a bull market. And just one more. On the state permitting, can you walk us through what's left there on the -- as a full state permitting checklist? What is in hand? What remains outstanding? And how do we expect the receipt of those permits going forward?

Sure. I'll take that one. The only outstanding state permit is for the tailings dam and other water retention structures. Our federal permits which are all in hand, authorized us to do this work. However, in Alaska, these structures are administered by the state, and they require final engineering drawings before they grant approval. We've submitted the design packages to the state. We had already completed the geotechnical work, and we expect approval of these permits about the time we're wrapping up the bankable feasibility study. So they're not on the critical path, but the work to get these permits is well in hand. All of our other remaining state permits are in good standing as is our federal permits.

Thank you. I do have a few questions from the webcast that I wanted to read out. The first is from Eric. Will the BFS include a closure and recognition estimate, including long-term water treatment and post-closure monitoring assumptions?

I'll start with that one. Yes, it does. Part of the feasibility study and actually the permitting requires you to have approved closure plans that have to be invested by the state and our native partners. The lease plans, reclamation and closure and water treatment, they are all part of the commitments in our existing permits. Once the mine is in operation, it will cash fund these permits through a trust. So it's -- the procedure is well defined and the approvals are all in place for the subsequent reclamation and restoration of the Donlin site post mining.

Great. Thank you, Greg. The next question comes from Jean. Given the recent share price volatility and now with the feasibility team in place, which upcoming milestone in this study do you believe will be most important in helping the market recognize the project's underlying progress and value?

Well, there's -- I mean, the important piece of this, obviously, is to finish the feasibility study. But along the way, we're advancing many different avenues. I think particular interest is we will be evaluating third-party participation in our gas pipeline and other components in the infrastructure that we could logically bring in a third party to handle. So that will be one of the catalysts coming up as we advance the feasibility study. Then the other milestones along the way as different components of the study are completed, and we will update the marketplace as this work unfolds. But the real key item is finishing the study, and we anticipate it will certainly demonstrate robust economics in this price environment.

Great. Thank you. I have a further question that come through the line from Matt. Dr. Kaplan, at the last quarter's update, you mentioned that your decisions toward NOVAGOLD and Donlin were family influence. I have been following NOVAGOLD for over 15 years and now have many family members investing in the story. I just wanted to say that I appreciate your's and NOVAGOLD's integrity over the years. A big thank you. Could you comment on the recent movement in gold and how that relates to NOVAGOLD?

Well, that's very kind. While I'm going to ask our team, could you please call up the chart that references the long-term bull market in the Dow, and just let me know when it's up there.

Yes, the slide is up.

But before that, let me get to the best part of the questioner's remarks. First of all, I find it very gratifying, we all do that you're able to make this comment about our integrity and your family's investment in NOVAGOLD. Needless to say, as Electrum is the largest shareholder of the company. And as the largest shareholder of Electrum is my family. I take it very much to heart that I have a responsibility to my family, but all the other shareholders and in your case, your own family, to do the best possible thing that we can. And I would say that the thing that Greg and I are most proud of since having come into the story together in 2011, we are celebrating 15 years of joyful monogamy. And one of the things that we are most proud of is that any promises that we made, we kept. To the extent that we disappointed, I think 100% of our shareholders understood it was for reasons beyond our control.

And we had all the tailwinds that I think and John Paulson thinks will take us to $100 per share. But we had one headwind. And when you think that a year ago, our stock was at $2 and change, and reached 14, and I have no doubt that we will vastly surpass that and multiply past $14. You understand that we took it to heart as much as any shareholder that we were being held back. And once that was relieved approximately a year ago, we knew that we would be on our way to $10 to $15 to $30, and we think well beyond that for all of the reasons that have become so clear to everyone that whether people realize it or not, and I'm not saying we're going back to a gold standard, because we'll never see that kind of discipline ever again in human economics. But we are seeing the remonetization of gold.

We are seeing that central banks have shown through their purchases that gold is the asset that they hold because it doesn't represent someone else's liability. When central banks hold gold, when central banks buy gold, they're making a statement. To the extent that some central banks need to lay off some gold as Turkey is said to have, that proves, proves to all of the rest of them that gold is the asset that you want to own because gold traditionally in a crisis gets hit because if it's in a bull market, it may be one of the only things in which people have a profit. So the ability to not just buy but the ability to sell something, if you need to take some chips off the table because I don't know, you have missiles that are flying into your territory and need to be taken out with Patriots. That's a good thing, not to be concerned about. And this is one of the things that I enjoy most in the time that I've been bullish on gold and publicly so since gold was at $500 in 2007. And when I said my first equilibrium for gold would be between $3,000 and $5,000, people thought I was nuts. Similarly, when I said that silver will go to triple digits, people thought I was nuts, but that's my stock in trade. I don't know how to build a mine.

Greg Lang knows how to build the mine. Richard Williams knows how to build the mine. They know how to do it on budget and on schedule. I can't figure out how to make chrome work over Safari. But I don't need to. You surround yourself with the very best people. My job is to protect my family's wealth. And by extension, all of the families that depend on me, including our management team and including our shareholders. So with that, let me go back to a chart that I spoke to on our last conference call because I wanted to give people a heads up as to what might happen. It wasn't required, but it might happen.

In fact, what I would call the 1987 correction started 3 days later. Now I'm not going to say that I was predicting it. I was going to say that it should be expected. And for that reason, whereas people who predict a downdraft are seen as Cassandra's, I wasn't actually being a Cassandra in this case. And I have been a Cassandra in different cases, like on the Middle East. But in this instance, I was presenting people with my belief that we could have in 1987. 1987 is not so much remembered for how you felt when you thought the world was caving in, in October of '87. It was -- it is and should be remembered as the blip that created the best buying opportunity of the bull market in stocks. The best because we've already seen the stock market go to 2,750. And when it pulled back to 1,650, you have to fade these numbers a bit, I'm sorry. That was actually the cream of the opportunity to be able to build the position if you didn't have one or to add on weakness in a bull market that has all the structural factors going forward.

And if anything, we can see that the world is a very different place. I hope that it's going to turn out to be a much safer place. But without getting into politics, the reality is that we're in unchartered waters economically and the debt burden will never be repaid. So just for all these reasons, if you didn't own gold on the way up, taking advantage of a pullback was what I was trying to express, while some people were a little bit upset that I said that there could be such a pullback, the reality is we're looking at it. So look at this chart again because this is the exact same chart as I issued. And I'll just repeat the sentence that I repeated 3 months ago. As a curiosity, I want you to go back and look back at the mid-1980s. The blip, which barely is noticeable is the crash of '87 that a lot of us thought was going to be the harbinger of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You can't even see it as the Dow march from 1,000 to 45,000 and up to 50-some-odd thousand plus leap in value over the decades.

A few days later, '87 began. And then it was compounded by the need for people to be able to have some liquidity due to the war with Iran. So once again then let me reiterate, in the words of Ray Dalio, one of our greatest contemporary applied historians, Gold is now the second largest reserve currency behind the U.S. dollar. To understand why you need to look at the history of fiat currencies like the dollar and hard currencies like gold. The way I see it, we're currently facing a classic currency devaluation similar to what we saw in the 70s or 80s. In both of those cases, fiat currencies around the world all went down together and all went down in relationship to hard currencies like gold.

If events today follow a similar pattern that makes hard currencies an attractive asset to hold. For all of you who've known me or listened to me over the years when I was asked which currencies to own, I said, if you have to own a paper currency on the dollar. But the real currency is gold. And now I don't really know what paper currencies are going to thrive the most. But I will repeat something which I've said now over the last couple of years, regardless of your view on currencies against gold, the dollar is actually collapsing. So every once in a while, you'll have a pullback, but the long-term trend on gold, to my mind, is going to be very similar and indeed price-wise, it actually looks at, but that's coincidence. Very similar to what we saw in the Dow Jones. And so for those, if you haven't taken advantage of the pullback, my strong recommendation is that you do. And I can only say that what my family does, we are long-term holders in our flagship gold asset Donlin and will absolutely remain so because to our mind, if we sell it, we can't go into something at least as good, and we really think impossible to go into anything better.

So thank you for being a long-term shareholder. Thank you for your support. I can tell you it means a lot to us. And the last conference call for those who managed to stay through it. One of the callers actually said that he and his wife had an argument over NOVAGOLD during the tough times, but that the revival of NOVAGOLD actually saved his marriage. And we regarded that as probably not only the funniest, but the most heartwarming piece of news we've had all year.

So with that, I thank you and all of the shareholders who have kept the faith. All I can do is promise you that I, the entire management team is devoted to being able to unlock the fullest value of what we consider to be the greatest gold development story in the world and what will be the largest single gold mine in the best jurisdiction on the planet. Thank you.

I'd now like to hand the call back over to Greg Lang for concluding remarks.

Well, I just want to thank everybody for taking the time to get an update on NOVAGOLD, and our Chairman's thoughts on gold prices and markets. So everybody thank you. We'll be in touch.

This brings to a close of today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to NovaGold's 2025 [ year-end ] report conference call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Aisha. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased that you've joined us for NovaGold's 2025 year-end webcast and conference call and also for an update on the Donlin Gold project. On today's call, we have NOVAGOLD's Chairman, Dr. Thomas Kaplan; President and CEO, Greg Lang; and Peter Adamek, NovaGold's Vice President and CFO.

At the end of the webcast, we will take questions by phone. Additionally, we will respond to questions received by e-mail. I would like to remind you, as stated on Slide 3, any statements made today may contain forward-looking information, such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve risks to tail in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers that are included in this presentation. With that, I will now turn the presentation over to Dr. Thomas Kaplan.

Thank you very much, Melanie. We start on Slide 4. I'd just like to point out something which in this era of volatility and resource nationalism. It's important to understand that NovaGold and our partners at Paulson are building the path to what will be America's largest single gold mine. That's an extraordinary statement. And candidly, one that would have seemed to many people a year ago, something that would be very hard to imagine. And yet, here we are at a perfect time to be building America's gold mine.

If we go to Slide 5, I'd like to speak to the most important event that took place last year. And that was the transaction that has already shown itself to be catalytic. And yet on the other hand, for reasons which I will state, I believe that we are really in just the first inning of the revaluation of NovaGold. And the reason is simple, for the first time, NovaGold is perfectly aligned with its partner.

People used to ask me, Tom, you own gold assets, silver assets and you never joined the public boards. And why this one? And my answer to that is because I enjoy it. I love working with the people. And by temperament, if I'm interested in something, I tend to go all in. My interest in NovaGold has been metaphysical from the time that I first saw it in the public markets to the time when on December 31, 2008, [ Egor Levental ] negotiated an agreement that effectively had us come in as the safer of NovaGold, which was going to go out of business.

It had a lot of problems. We turned them around. But along the way, our first shareholder has become something of an angel, and that's [ John Paulson]. He was the first investor in NovaGold after the Electrum Group took it over. And it was a fantastic journey as some of you will read Greg Lang's own story of how he came to NovaGold. When John sent his analysts to see whether I could possibly be right when I posited that we think it's possible that NovaGold just on the 5% of the land package that's been explored is a pure play on the next Carlin, we felt that we could see 80 million to 100 million ounces. And of course, he found that, that was highly improbable.

He sent his analysts to visit they came back, he called me and he said, "What do you want to do?" and I said, "Like $100 million." He said, "Done." And I said, "What changed?" and he said, "Our analysts came back. We can see what you see. Congratulations."

Up until about 2020, I think I can say that it really was a lot of fun. And then unfortunately, we had some glitches. I'll get to that in a moment. But suffice to say that since [ John Paulson ] took the extraordinary step of investing $800 million personally to take a 40% stake in Donlin, the market has understood that this may well have been the best single buy in the gold mining space since Barrick itself, Goldstrike, which was the company maker, for that company and certainly, one of them as well for [ Franco-Nevada].

The market reception that we've had from a low of $2.5 early last year to, well, where we are today, certainly shows that people understand not just the quality of the asset, but that we argue for a major, major revaluation, which as far as we're concerned, hasn't really even taken place yet.

Next slide, please. On Slide 6, what you can see is a very interesting story. We were partners for a very, very long time. The Barrick partnership preexisted my coming into the story in 2008 to 2009. But from the time that we applied our team approach, NovaGold was one of the premier rated assets in the GDXJ. And we believe that it has the potential to be that once again, maybe the premier asset in the play. And what you see is a very, very nice progression up until about 2020 when there was a change in management at Barrick.

Well, the next several years were not as fun as the previous ones. However, by the time that last year or the year before, rolled around, it was very clear that our partners agenda was not going to work. And fortunately, [ Mark Bristow ] and I were able to reach an agreement to buy Barrick's half of Donlin with [ John Olson ] buying 80% of that stake and NovaGold increasing its stake from 50% to 60%.

We went from having years of nonalignment with our partner, whose I had wondered very much to copper and in some very interesting jurisdictions to being in a position where we could once again reboot and take us back to where we were. Well, if you look at this chart, we were a $12 stock in 2020. So many things have happened since then. And I would argue, and I think [ John Paulson ] would partly agree that based on where we should be, where we would have been without the delay, we would be multiples higher than where we are today.

One thing I can tell you is that I will be working with management and also with the [ Paulson Group ] for us to remain that lost ground and multiply where we should be because to my mind, that lost ground took place in sub-$2,000 gold, and we are in a completely different place and one of the reasons why I am so confident about that is that we are literally in the right place.

People talk about world-class, but as somebody who really made his fortune in countries like Bolivia and [ Babe], South Africa, I sold [ Kibali ] to [ Mark Bristow]. I really do believe that in order to be able to get the premium rating, you have to be in a place where people can sleep well at night where when they go to sleep, they know that when they wake up in the morning, what they thought they owned, they still own.

In other words, you want all the leverage to an underlying thesis, but in a jurisdiction that will allow you to keep the fruits of that leverage. It really doesn't get any better than Alaska. So for all of those reasons, I believe that we are really just in the first inning. We haven't really even taken ourselves back to where we should be at $2,000 gold.

Next slide. Now let me talk a bit about the advantage that we have from being partners with John Paulson and his team. They are proven talents in the mining industry at a time when very few generalists have the kind of expertise that they have shown, not just in picking the right assets, but also we're necessary becoming activists.

John Paulson, of course, is very famous for having been perhaps the greatest beneficiary of identifying the macro trade that coincided with the financial crisis. And as George Soros put it at the time, he not only identified the trade, he identified the very, very best vehicles to be able to make from 10 to 100x on the investments for his clients. I am very proud to say that John, who has been an investor in NovaGold since 2010. It's our longest-standing and most active shareholder. But the fact that John, who is, as I've been a very, very well-known public advocate for gold ownership has decided to make such an investment. He's basically said the macros, I know. I'm bullish on gold. I want more exposure to it. And as far as I'm concerned, Donlin is the single best way for me to play it.

In other words, the same thesis that accompanied his views on how to be able to deal with subprime and the housing prices are embodied in the stake that he has taken in Donlin. He didn't have to do it. He saw an opportunity. And again, I really do believe and all credit to him that this will be the single savviest investment having been made in the gold space in many, many decades.

One other factor that I'd like to add is not only does Paulson bring acumen and strategic depth to the project. But also, they have extraordinary access to financing that is not necessarily my frame of reference. So in Electrum, we have several sovereign wealth funds, which are the only outside owners in what is essentially a family an employee-owned business. And my strong suit is in the sovereign wealth funds.

John is in the United States. And as we've seen with the success of perpetual, he knows how to be able to bring capital to an equation to be able to lower the cost of capital. And there are many, many upsides in the financing opportunities which we can look towards. There are a number of countries, including Japan, Korea, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, which really have pledged to invest well over $1 trillion in the United States. I would venture to say that the largest gold mine in the United States on the Pacific Coast might very well be attractive to countries like Japan, where you have very, very strong gold demand or a country like Korea, where the central banks the Central Bank has said that they're going to resume gold purchases.

Well, Japan has pledged $550 billion, and last I saw Korea $350 billion. And then, of course, you have the Emirates, who are partners with me, Saudis who are partners with me. It's a whole different world to be able to finance the largest gold mine in the United States. Paulson brings advantages to us in that respect. And there are many, many upsides that could take place. Possible we could merge and on a 100% basis. be, a 1.5 million ounce gold producer. Whatever is in the interest of NovaGold, we will always consider and most importantly, take into consideration our shareholders who have been fantastic guides. But the point is there are upside cases on financing stories that really didn't exist until a year ago. So again, watch this space.

Now I'd like to go to something which on Slide 8, may look like a little bit of sulfur [indiscernible]. There are suit been bullish on gold, not as many who have basically put all of their wealth into gold and silver mining assets. We are called Electrum because it is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. And we have been all in. And obviously, what's transpired over the last year or 2 has been wonderful.

But when I go out on the road, because I have been told evangelist or one of them for a number of years, I'm very often asked where I see gold going. So if I can take a step back so that it gives me the opportunity without selective disclosure or selective hypothesizing for years. I expressed that I thought the first equilibrium level for gold would be between $3,000 to $5,000. I expressed this publicly as early as when gold was at $550 and that, of course, took a lot of people by surprise. I expressed I was going to sell.

What I then had is the fastest-growing privately held natural gas producer in the United States. We sold that in 2007 to pivot entirely into the one money that I believe in. And still the believe in. Gold 1.0 has been great, candidly, crypto and calling it Gold 2.0 has expanded Gold 1.0's reach to so many places that I normally don't even have to speak to most people about why they should earn gold. I just tell them where I think it's going.

In May 2019, I did a Bloomberg peer-to-peer interview with [ David Rubenstein]. That night, gold was at about $1,900. actually, that's not true. It was $1,280. And David asked me, so you see it going past $1,900, which was the previous high and I told I believe that when it goes past $1,900, we're talking about $3,000 to $5,000.

But I also added this, which was, if not a lot higher, depending on macro circumstances that today seem in but which I can't really quantify. Now at that time, I was already formulating a different thesis on where I saw gold going. A lot has changed since the early 2000s. And my thesis has changed.

But I really didn't think it was prudent for me to say that publicly. It was already enough when gold was at $1,280 to say I see it going from $3,000 to $5,000. But now I want to walk you through my thesis which is borne out of the fact that I'm no more a gold bug than I was a silver bug, a hydrocarbon bug, the platinum bug or any other insect. It's just that this is my belief and you can take it for whatever it's worth.

On Slide 9, I think it's very clear now that gold is here to stay. It has been revitalized as an asset class. I'm not going to spend too much time on the things that make it attractive. Gold has been thriving whether you have inflation fears, deflation fears, whether you require a safe haven or you don't. The gold industry itself has dwindling discovery rates or grades are now plunging to below a gram central buyers have been buying.

I've said for years, the central banks are not dumb money. They actually know better the lack of credibility of so much of the assets that they own on their balance sheet that by buying gold as an act of choice and active volition, they are doing as much as anyone to be able to show you that you should own it. And clearly, everyone who's been buying gold as a central banker, and they're not paid [ 2 in '20 ] to take bold decisions is obviously looking like a genius.

That also goes with the other aspect that I've always said since gold was at $500, which is whenever the Indians and the Chinese are competing over a scarce asset you must want to own it. So you have Chinese and Indian demand, you have central bank demand, and you now have new investors who are coming in to compete with the official sector. This environment is perfect.

I should add that I never used to resort to talking about the fear factors in pushing for why people should own gold. I spoke about economics 101, supply and demand, why one wants to have a money that can't be debased by [indiscernible]. A lot of good logical factors, but I didn't go into the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, or any of the things that sometimes people bear into when they talk about both.

However, after 2022 and the combination both of the real displacement in the world order with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the displacement of the financial order with the freezing of Russian assets outside of Russia. That really was a game changer. It was a game changer for a lot of central banks. It was a game changer for a lot of investors who want to preserve their capital, both as a safe haven and also because gold is something that when you own it, it doesn't represent someone, it doesn't represent someone else's liability to repay you. So all of these things, we've seen a little bit esoteric, all of a sudden came into sharp relief. And you see gold taking off. Well, I do believe this is the early stage of a complete revaluation.

On Slide 10, this is where I believe we're going to see gold going. Now that chart is a chart of the Dow Jones Industrial average since 1975. Here's what happened in the Dow. Up until about 1980, essentially for 30 years, the Dow was in a trading range. And if it came to 1,000 or peaked above it, smart people said, well, sell it. It's at the top of the trading range. And that worked for a while.

The problem is that reversals essentially mean that at some point, you can actually say this time it's different. Otherwise, it's not a reversal. So normally, when people hear this time it's different, they think, "Oh, well, that's a bubble about the burst." Very often it is, but sometimes it's just representing new facts and this is what happened with the Dow.

Now I happen to remember I was working for someone in London in 1987, while I was doing my PhD. And I remember the crash of '87. I'd like you to try to see if you can see it on this chart, a crash, which took the Dow down from the 2000s to, I think, 16 -- 1,700. It seems like the sky was falling in. You cannot see it. It was a downdraft essentially in the passage of time meant to wipe out weak hands as it started to make its climb to 45,000. I don't know where the gold needs an '87 moment. If it happens, you just have to buy it and buy it and buy it.

It could be brief, it could be short and it may not even happen at all because the reality is that the fundamentals for gold are so strong and literally get reinforced almost with every [ tweet]. It is reinforced on a weekly, if not daily basis why everyone should have gold in their portfolio. The problem is there really isn't enough gold to go around, except at much, much higher equilibrium prices. So with the 3,000 to 5,000 area having been met. And by the way, people sometimes say, why 3 to 5. I said, be it could go to 5 and then correct down to 3 before going past 5 to 20.

In any event, I'd like to cite Ray Dalio, who is someone that I deeply, deeply respect rate is extraordinary. And if there's a public service announcement, reads books is the best what I would say, market-related applied historian in the world today.

So at a certain point, not long ago, Ray said, gold is now the second largest reserve currency behind the U.S. dollar. To understand why you need to look at the history of fed currencies like the dollar in hard currencies like gold. The way I see it, we're currently facing a plastic currency devaluation similar to what we saw in the 1970s or in the 1930s. In both of those cases, fiat currencies around the world all went down together and also went down in relationship to hard currencies like gold.

Up until about a year or 2 ago, for decades, when people ask me, which currencies should I own, I said on the U.S. dollar because although I do believe that all paper currencies are toilet tissue, the U.S. dollar is double-ply. It has factors that make it better than its other paper currency comparables. Not that I believe in it, but if you need a paper currency, the dollar, of course, there's always room for the Swiss franc and a couple of other esoteric things, but you get the idea.

The dollar and gold and I said, for me, it's all about gold, not the dollar. But for most investors, you know they can't be as all in as a private investor like myself. Suffice to say that the U.S. is doing everything it can to debate the cornerstones of its being not just first among equals, but the superpower. Those chickens will come home to roost, and I'm sorry to see it.

The United States obviously has factors that make it unique. It has the ability to project power all over the world in a way that until the Chinese catch up is unique to itself. It -- well, it had a multilateral alliance system that the Chinese could not compete with, and therefore, was the boss. And in return, for this leadership people were willing to buy the dollar despite America's bipartisan commitment to spending so much more money than it has, and they were willing to go along with the convenient picture, which is to say if you defend us, you are the economic superpower and that's a trade we're willing to make. It was a trade-off.

Well, we are starting to witness shifts in that, which I'm not saying are going to immediately displace the dollar. But for a variety of reasons, you will see not only adverse series now, but friends look to be able to have more financial autonomy. One thing, however, I do have to say for those who are buying gold depos, they think that the dollar will weaken. That's not necessarily true. I remember when I sold my energy company, we got a lot of money.

And I remember saying, George Soros once said that the existential decision for any investors is in which currency to denominate themselves. I chose gold. But also, I had other paper currencies. The dollar euro at that time in November of 2007, was about $147 million. The dollar has strengthened to 115, let's say, and gold has gone from 600 to nearly 5,000. In other words, you do not need a weaker dollar to buy gold. Does it help? Yes. But those who shut off that [ methology ] will do a lot better. I knew that the gold and the dollar could go up in tandem.

So really, when you're looking at that analysis, don't make that the central pivot in my opinion. If it helps the analysis, no problem. But there are a lot of myths about gold, which have been dispelled that now people really do understand. You didn't need strong oil. When I sold my energy company oil was at $120 a barrel. It's half of that, gold was at $600. There are a lot of miss. The point is, this is a bull market. And you're going to play it if you're not in it and you're going to be increasing your allocation as other people come into it for the first time.

The mining equities are tremendously undervalued. And the reason for that is after so many years of dismissing gold as a harbors relic people almost can't believe what they're seeing. They can't believe it's really going to be 3,000, 4,000, 5,000. Well, if it is, the gold miners are truly, truly value plays, something to consider.

If I move to Slide 11, very simply put, if you look back over 25 years, which is not unreasonable since the turn of the century, gold has done a brilliant job as an asset class. As we know that people do like to look back, I think people, our investors are going to be encouraged more and more to have gold in their portfolio as portfolio diversifiers. Not to mention the other myriad factors for owning gold in today's world.

Slide 12. So this for me has been one of the great reasons why I love Donlin. The leverage to gold, the leverage to what we see is 45 million ounces now in all resources with the potential for that to multiply along strike. The 45 million ounces is only 3 kilometers of an 8-kilometer mineralized belt, which itself is only 5% of the land package, 95% of Donlin is unexplored. That's going to turn around.

We are now, for the first time, systematically going through our land package, we believe that it is possible, although this is a wildly forward-looking statement at the next [ comment ] to be at Donlin. The chance is that there's nothing else big there are very small. Having said that, even if nothing else was there, we do believe that we can see the existing resource multiply.

But assuming never none of that happens, this is the leverage that we have to go -- and it shows NPV 5, which are perfectly fine. And it also shows NPV 0. And the reason why I say that is because up until the early 1990s, U.S. assets were valued at a 0% discount rate. I believe we're going to get back to that. If you have the right jurisdiction and you have exploration potential and you have so many of the other attributes that Greg will be describing in just a couple of minutes. I really do believe that we will be closer to the right of the right-hand side.

But be that as it may, you can clearly see that the beauty of Donlin is that it gives you all the leverage, you could possibly want to gold, but in a jurisdiction that will allow you to keep it. At Donlin, you can sleep well at night and be exposed to tremendous good news while being short jurisdiction risk. And so with that, I'm going to hand the baton over to Peter Adamek to talk about our financial results. Thank you.

Thank you, Tom. Turning to our operating performance on Slide 14. NovaGold reported a fiscal 2025 4th quarter net loss of $15.6 million. This represents an increase of $4.7 million from the comparable prior year primarily due to higher site activity at Donlin Gold and higher general and administrative expenses. NovaGold Fourth quarter results also reflect the company's second consecutive quarter with a 60% interest in Donlin Gold.

For the full year, NovaGold reported a net loss of $94.7 million during fiscal 2025, which included a $39.6 million noncash, nonrecurring charge for warrants issued as consideration for a backstop commitment in support of the Donlin Gold transaction. Excluding this onetime charge, general and administrative expenses during the fiscal 2025 were largely unchanged from prior year while Donlin Gold expenditures were $9 million higher due to the 2025 field program.

On Slide 15, our treasury during fiscal 2025 increased by $13.9 million, which left us with $115.1 million at the end of the year. During the year, we closed a public offering and a private placement, generating net proceeds of $259.6 million, we also acquired an additional 10% of Donlin Gold for consideration and transaction costs totaling $210.1 million at the start of the third quarter of 2025. Corporate G&A cash spend during the year increased by $1 million versus prior year, and our share of Donlin Gold funding increased by $10.1 million due to increased site activity in 2025 and the company's 10% increased Donlin Gold funding obligation.

Moving to Slide 16. As discussed on the previous slide, our treasury sits at a robust $115.1 million at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. Our 2025 cash expenditures of $41.2 million were below our overall 2025 guidance by $0.8 million due to slightly lower-than-anticipated spending at Donlin Gold and marginally higher G&A costs at NovaGold as a result of higher professional fees following the closing of the Donlin Gold transaction.

Looking ahead to 2026, our anticipated expenditures for 2026 are approximately $98.5 million, which include $78.8 million for NovaGold's 60% of Donlin Gold expenditures and $19.7 million for corporate G&A. With that, I will now turn the presentation over to Greg.

2025 was a very active year at the Donlin site. We completed an 18,000 meter drill program. Throughout this program, the safety record was impeccable, and we hired over 80% of our employees from villages in and around the Donlin mine site. The results from this program will be used to enhance our geologic modeling, resource conversion and geotechnical drilling to support the designs of the project facilities.

We recently updated our technical report for regulatory compliance, pending the completion of the feasibility study. This report more than anything else really demonstrates the robust nature of the mineralization at Donlin. We're also very active in the communities this year. With the renewed progress at the site, it garnered a lot of interest. We hosted many community visits, regulatory visits as well as additional analyst tours. So a very active year at the site.

Our team in Alaska also finalized shared value statements with additional villages, bringing the total to 20. We completed a restoration program at [ Snow Gulch]. And on [indiscernible] [ Fernandes], one of the Donlin employees was recognized by his peers for his contributions to misundertaking.

Turning to the next slide. What I really want to highlight here is just to remind everybody, we have completed the federal permitting process. and we have substantially completed the state permitting. We're one of the few projects that is not relying on permitting and the decisions impacting the timing are solely in the hands of the owners.

As shown on Slide 20, we continue to support the state and federal agencies in defending the permits they have issued. The court rulings to date have validated that the agencies did a thorough job preparing the environmental impact statements and the associated permits. We're continuing to advance the design of our tailings dam and other water retention structures. This work has been submitted to the regulatory agents in Alaska, and we expect them to be responding in the near future.

Our federal permit, turning to the next slide was remanded for a small additional study by the courts. This requires a supplemental EIS. During the permitting, we evaluated a tailings release and the court asked that we study additional releases. This work is well advanced, and this supplemental EIS has been incorporated into the [ FAST-41 ] program. This is a program that creates schedules and deadlines for the agencies to follow in processing a permit. It doesn't change anything in our designs, but it just focuses the agencies on getting this work done in a timely fashion.

My next few slides will talk about why one might consider investing in NovaGold. Donlin is -- it is just simply a unique asset in terms of its production profile, it will average over 1 million ounces a year in a mine life of almost 3 decades. There are many mines in the industry of this size anymore. At 40 million ounces, we've got a huge endowment at 2.25 grams, great grade for an open-pit deposit the exploration potential at Donlin is tremendous.

We know the ore body is open ended at strike at depth and along with 3 kilometers of the 8-kilometer gold-bearing system has only likely been explored. When the time is right, we will resume exploration on the project. We also know that there's tremendous potential on our landholdings at Donlin. The area of the known mineralization represents about 5% of our land holdings are.

Alaska is a great place to do business. They've got a well-established, traditional and responsible mining and are the second largest gold producing state in the U.S. Another great factor about Donlin, it is located on private land owned by [indiscernible] [ Native Corporations]. As I mentioned earlier, our permits are in hand, and we're wrapping up the state permitting. We've maintained a great environmental and safety record at our site, and we're committed to responsible mining. The team at NovaGold has the expertise it takes to bring a project like Donlin into fruition.

Moving to the next slide. When you look at the other development projects that are being advanced in the industry, the output of them is less than 0.5 million ounces a year. Clearly, Donlin would be far and away the largest new gold mine to be built. Its first 10 years will produce about 1.3 million ounces a year, truly in a class of its own.

[ Grade ] is also a very key attribute at Donlin. The industry grades are approaching a gram per tonne. At 2.25 grams, Donlin is twice that. And it's that grade that gives Donlin very competitive cash costs. And this slide just highlights the potential along trend. The [ Akman Lewis ] deposits are less than half of the 8-kilometer belt. We've got gold bearing drill holes all up and down the trend, and we will resume exploration when the time is right. This year's drill program included results of over 26 grams per ton demonstrating the quality of the resource and the potential for significant grades when we continue exploring.

Moving to the next slide. We're up in Alaska. We've been there for many years. We're very comfortable operating in the state. It's got a great regulatory environment. There is a responsible active mining industry in Alaska, and we're really privileged to be there. When you look at the jurisdictional risks of other mining jurisdictions, Alaska is third globally on the [ Fraser ] Institute index.

As I mentioned earlier, we are on private land. [ Calista ] Corporation owns the mineral rights and TKC owns the surface rights. Both of these entities have been stance, allies and advocates for the project as we navigated the permitting process. We have life of mine agreements in place with both of these entities. Donlin will provide a meaningful impact to these businesses, and they look forward to the economic opportunities that the mine will bring.

Another development in Alaska that we're following very closely is the planning to bring gas down from the north slope into the [ Cook Inlet]. This is being championed by [ Glen ] farm, and they are working to secure funding to advance this. Gas resources up in the North Slope have been known for many years, but it was the difficulty getting them to market was the challenge with the Administration's new focus on U.S. energy independence. I think the time is getting close to bring this gas into the [ cook inlet], produce in Alaska as well as the export markets.

This is very important to us, and I think you might have noticed we have signed a nonbinding letter of intent with [ Glen Farm], the champion of this pipeline project. The parties will advance discussions on a supply agreement with [ Glen farm ] as their plans materialize to build the gas pipeline from the North Slope.

NovaGold enjoys strong institutional support. We've been very fortunate to have a shareholder base that's been with us many, many years. The top 10 shareholders represent almost 2/3 of our outstanding stock. It's great to have such blue-chip investors behind us. We value their support and the long-term relationships that have guided us for many, many years.

Turning to the next steps at the project and some of the catalysts that will be coming up. Within the next few weeks, we anticipate that we will announce an engineering firm to complete the bankable feasibility study. This work is expected to take about 18 months and the firm will be certainly well known to many of you that follow the construction activities in the mining industry.

We've also hired [ Frank Artic]. He is the project manager. He brings extensive experience to the project, and we're very fortunate to have a man with his background. We will also be exploring future sources of financing as we advance the feasibility study. Looking ahead, we look forward to updating all of our shareholders and stakeholders on the progress we're making. We'll now open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. The first question comes from Raj Ray with BMO Capital Markets.

I have 3 questions, if I may. The first one is, well, congratulations on getting the nonmining LOI signed with the [ Glenfarm]. I know it's early days of negotiations, but is there anything you can share with us with respect to what's the structure of that agreement that NovaGold would like to have? That's the first.

The same question is on your RFP for the BFS that you have sent out of various engineering funds Look, I know it's -- there's a lot of good engineering firms. But given the fact that commodity prices across the board are running, it's also important to have the best teams within those engineering firms. So as you are starting to talk to them what's the feeling you're getting about the capacity they have and your ability to have not only the top form but also the best team within the firm?

And my last question is on the technical report update. It's great to have that very informative. I did see that there's a slight pickup in the strip ratio. I just wanted to get a sense whether some of the geotech drilling you have done, if that's informing that increase in [indiscernible] or if you can share any additional details?

All right. Raj, Well, thank you for joining the call this morning. I think I could cover all your questions. Beginning with the pipeline and our discussions with [ Glen farm], it's a clean slate. Glen Farm is quite interested in all aspects of what we're doing. They've expressed interest in building and operating the pipeline for us. And we think that's really a logical piece of the project to carve out. So we're really just, like I said, an open slate where discussions will continue.

And I would watch Alaska for the next month or so and look for announcements on their success in financing the pipeline. And it's important to note that this is not a new project, and it's already permanent, and it will follow the existing [ Trans Alaska ] oil pipeline. So very exciting developments there, and it's great that Donlin has a seat at the table as their plans advance.

On the RFP for the feasibility study, we were very select in the firms that we brought into the bidding process. We only wanted to consider firms that have one experience to take on a project of this scale and the capacity of people to do it. And so we've kept the field very narrow, and we anticipate releasing that news in the next few weeks.

But I think part of the selection process addressed the buried issue you talked about, and that was we went with the firm that did have the capacity to take on a big project. And finally, on the technical report, the strip ratio has ticked up a bit, and that's driven by 2 factors. I think, one, we've taken some areas of the pit, we flattened the slopes a little bit. And we've also taken a little different view of dilution. And these are areas that we will revisit when we are advancing the model that will support the feasibility study.

The next question comes from Soundarya Iyer with B. Riley Securities.

Congratulations on the quarter. I just have 2 questions. One is on the bankable feasibility study. So I'm trying to understand like how the current budget, the $78 million that has been budgeted for the upcoming Donlin activities. How is that allocated between like feasibility work and the ongoing exploration. My actual question is how do we look at it as -- do we look at it as a single year budget? Or is it like through the feasibility study that's going to take 12 to 18 months.

Well, the work program at Donlin in 2026 will be very active. The bankable feasibility study will obviously be a large component of that. In addition to the bankable feasibility study, we're also in final discussions on firms on several unique parts of the project. For example, these would be the autoclaves. There's some companies out there with deep experience in this processing technology. So we'll have a separate contract for that as well as the gas pipeline and other components of the infrastructure. Those are also included in the Donlin budget for next year.

We continue to be very active in the communities, and we've increased our budget in the communities to reflect the increased activity as the project is moving forward. Of course, it's getting more and more interest. So we're going to really be out in the villages and throughout the state and in our nation's capital, actively talking up the project and keeping everybody informed of our plans.

So that's the main components of the Donlin budget. The feasibility study, we've guided will take about 18 months to complete, and we'll be -- once we announced the firm that we've selected, we'll update everybody on the schedule.

Just one more from me. I mean, there's a lot of potential in the Donlin land package with just like 5% explode so far. So as we move into feasibility and then eventual construction , how are you guys thinking about advancing that exploration optionality in the near term. Will that be a confident event along with the feasibility study?

We will -- last year, we did a pretty extensive soil sampling program along the known mineralized trend. As I noted earlier, and that's just a very small part of our landholdings at Donlin. So we will be working with our partner developing plans for future exploration. But right now, really, it's all hands on deck getting the feasibility study kicked off. And once we get that work well underway, we'll turn our attention to the exploration and other matters.

But certainly, the potential is vast at Donlin, and we look forward to updating everybody on that work. But I think the immediate potential exists in and around the new ore bodies. So it'll be an exciting time to be exploring it up in Alaska.

Thank you. We have a few questions coming in from the webcast, and I'll start with a question coming in from [ Eric Schein]. Is the tailings design now effectively locked or still at risk of material change?

That's it. That's a good question. Let me -- first off, remind everybody that the tailings dam at Donlin is a downstream rock construction anchored into the bedrock. It's also a fully aligned structure. And that's really -- that's state-of-the-art. That's the most stable dam being built and the liner is just added protection. So the design of the tailings dam is really not impacted at all. It's finalized and we've submitted the design packages to the state. I don't anticipate any changes at all.

Great. The second question, what are the project economics, [ NPV and IRR ] that you're targeting as part of the DFS?

I think that's -- that will be addressed in the feasibility study sensitivities. Looking at our recent technical report, and I encourage everybody when they have time to give it a review. The economics on the gold price of about $2,100 were double-digit rate of return.

And it's -- you don't have to stretch your imagination from 2,100 to where we sit today, that's almost -- it's better than a twofold increase in price. So I think the economics at much lower gold prices are robust. And as you've noted in all of our presentations, we have tremendous leverage to upside and the current projects have close to an amazing cash flow generator.

The next question is for Tom. It's actually more of a statement from [ Matt Kovac], Dr. Kaplan. I have been listening to you at NovaGold for many years. How does it feel to be right and see your predictions and the price of gold coming to fruition?

It's not really a function of satisfaction of being right. Obviously, being right is essential for the way that we do business. We always start with a macro view on an underlying commodity or as I would put it in the case of precious metals currencies, and the reason why we start with macro is for the good reason that I'm not a mining guy. I've been in the business for 33 years.

And I've surrounded myself with the best of the best geologists, people who've been there and done that, like Dr. [ Larry Buchanan], you know who's still our Chief Geologist since 1994, or Greg Lang and Richard Williams, who both brought in [ Cortez ] and whether be on time, on budget when they were at Barrick. If you surround yourself with great people and you have assets that have superlatives attached to them, you're going to be right. The question is how long does it take?

If I have that kind of conviction, which some was metaphysical certitude about a thesis like I have had with gold and silver. And I have the right vehicle with which to be able to get the greatest leverage to that, especially today, in a jurisdiction that allows you to keep the fruits of the leverage. I can hold forever. I don't get frustrated. So by the time people come around to my point of view, it's not like I feel of indication. It's -- well, I'm glad that they came around and that offers me the opportunity to reward the people who've been with us with outsized gains.

To me, business is personal. I mean I have multiple passions in life. But over the last 33 years, we've only really focused on maybe half a dozen, 6, 7 assets. But if you look at our track record from first investment to exits, the annual track record is into the 80s of percents. And that was actually over 100% around the time of the financial crisis. But the last 10 years or so have been almost like watching paint dry in the mining industry.

But fortunately, the fundamentals always well out. I've never had a doubt about gold. And if I don't have a doubt. And by the way, I'm always questioning myself, I'm always saying, have the circumstances changed. In fact, in 2007, when I made that statement that a private equity conference that I was selling my energy company, fastest-growing natural gas producer in North America to go into gold and silver. And remember, I mean, the [ Petro ] state, and they said, what is your target? And I said my first equilibrium level is between 3,000 and 5,000 and then the next question was a very, very intelligent one, which was what can go wrong with your thesis?

You obviously have so much conviction. And I said for the first time in my life in my career, I can't find how I'm wrong, and that scares me. And for years, I was looking around for people to challenge me, like an ancient Greek with a light, [indiscernible] with a lamp looking for an honest man. And I was never persuaded out of my position and God only knows -- or excuse me, heaven knows.

There is nothing that has happened either within the realm of gold specifically or the macro circumstances in which we find ourselves, that has done anything to dissuade me from my firm beliefs which are, as you've seen, that gold will do as the Dow has done in terms of the breadth and long waves and sweep of the bull market. And it may happen much faster than the Dow for reasons that are almost self-evident at this point. So it's not really so much about being right. It's about doing the right thing.

And candidly, gold because I felt it was the best way to protect my family's wealth. And the fact that we express that through mining companies means that other people can join in if they like what we're doing. But first and foremost, it was out of personal interest. And so being right is not about -- growing about it.

It's about knowing that we allocated capital properly for our kids. I hope that answered -- well, you made a statement, but I hope that, that just gave a little bit more context to it. It's not so much about being right. It's about doing the right thing. And that can sometimes seem different.

The final commentary is worth sharing, and I'll just read it. It comes from the line of [ Jaeson]. Mr. Lang, Dr. Kaplan and Mr. Paulson, my wife and I have been NovaGold shareholders and related [ Trilogy ] shareholders since 2011. I have been a true believer from the get go. My wife, not so much. Thank you all for saving my marriage, just kidding. Thank you for your blood, sweat and tears, your extraordinary efforts, patients, resilience and foresight have brought us this far. We can't wait for the next 8 innings. Best wishes [ Jim ].

Thank you, Jim. You certainly made our week.

I'm glad it worked out for you.

That ends our Q&A. So back to you, Aisha.

All right. We thank you for joining our call.

Go ahead.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the NovaGold 2025 Third Quarter Report at Donlin Gold Update Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Aisha. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased that you have joined us for NovaGold's 2025 Third Quarter Webcast and Conference Call and for an update on the Donlin Gold project. On today's call, we have NovaGold's Chairman, Dr. Thomas Kaplan, President and CEO, Greg Lang; and Peter Adamek, NovaGold's Vice President and CFO. At the end of the webcast, we will take questions by phone. Additionally, we will respond to questions received by e-mail.

I would like to remind you as stated on Slide 3, any statements made today may contain forward-looking information, such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve risk detail in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation.

With that, I will now turn the presentation over to Dr. Thomas Kaplan.

Thank you very much, Melanie, and thank you to all of those who are joining our call today. Obviously, we have quite a bit to discuss with you. But I'm happy to say that it's really all very, very good news. And what I expect will be the beginning of a consistent pattern of progress that is going to amply [indiscernible] there's and our stakeholders.

As you can see, we are building the path to what will be quite literally the largest single gold mine in the United States. This comes at a time when we're not only in the foothills of a historic gold market, but also comes at a time when both the concept of money as well as jurisdictional safety are more important than ever before. Many years ago, when I spoke about jurisdictional safety, people thought I was being a little bit alarmist. But they couldn't avoid the fact that I had standing in South Africa and Zimbabwe and Congo. So I knew whereof I spoke before I went into the energy business in the United States and ultimately, went back into gold and silver mining.

Building what will be America's largest gold mine makes it a strategic asset with potential sources of funding from nations that is really the best that we've ever seen in our lifetimes.

Let me take you now to Slide 5. We refer to this as the catalytic transaction. And the reason for that is, as many of you know, since 2021, when we announced to the world with our partner, Barrick, that we were going to feasibility. To put it simply, we were held back. If we had managed to proceed as pledged, we'd already be through the feasibility through financing and very possibly breaking ground on construction. So we have some time to catch up. But very importantly, we also have the opportunity to catch up with our share price.

Earlier this year, we touched a low of $2 and change. we are now close to double digits. And when I said that I do believe that the stock would go from $3 or $3.50 back to the $12 to $15 area, just as our first stop, in fact, essentially, going back to where we were before we were paused in our progress, it may have come across is rather old. Well, what you can see here, and this chart is clearly out of date because it should extend up on the right-hand side considerably more over the last few days.

What you see is that a fire was ignited when we swapped a partner with whom we were not aligned with a partner with whom we are perfectly aligned. So essentially, what you're seeing is a revaluation of NovaGold. For those of you who have been with us for a very long time, all I can say is I wish this had happened earlier, but it really was outside of our control. But I can assure you, the first opportunity that we had to put it back into our control, we took it. And as we can see from this price chart, our investors haven't really had to look back. And as far as we can see, this is just the beginning.

On Slide #6, you [indiscernible] out. Just getting where we were in '21 [indiscernible] to the $12 to $15 area. And I believe that from there, we double again. Historically, we outperformed the GDXJ. In fact, we've always been, until the last few years, one of the go-to stocks in the gold development space because when an investor, if there were an investor is interested in that space, would ask the question of a broker, where can we get access to a great asset that's well managed, responsibly managed, but also in a jurisdiction where we might actually want to visit, we were able to get some of that flow.

I think that, that flow, which is now turning into a Torrent is going to benefit NovaGold as much as, if not more than any other large-scale development story for reasons which I will be explaining very shortly. But with this chart, you see 2 things. Number one, our historic outperformance versus the GDXJ, but also, I don't want to be distortive. If you look at where we went from peak to trough earlier this year, that was entirely the product of not having the right partner with us in this story. And the reversal, the beginning of the reversal, Phase I to take us back to the $12 to $15 area is because we have a perfectly aligned partner with gold at our backs.

Slide #7. When we talk about that Phase 2, which takes us from $12 to $15 to $30, which in full transparency is the target price that both John Paulson and I have set for where the stock really should be now and would have been if we weren't set back over the last few years, this is classic. We are now on the path to re-rating across the development phases of our progress to America's largest gold mine. This isn't actually rocket science. And if anything, the gold price and the revaluation and reappreciation of gold as a monetary asset that you want to own and if it's in the ground, you want to own it in a place where the rule of law is not a novelty has only grown in our favor.

This advantage has been a [indiscernible] Slide #8 by having the Paulson team with us. John is someone that I've known worked with and loved as a partner and as a friend for well over 15 years. He is the archetype, a paradigm of a mench, of somebody whose word is their bond. And we've had nothing but a great business experience. And in fact, the negotiation of this deal reflected that. He always put himself into the other sides shoes in order to be able to make the deal a true win-win.

I don't have to say much about John Paulson other than if there's anyone who is famous for identifying the big trade and finding the vehicle with which [ he can ] trade to multiply his and his shareholders' money, it's John Paulson. He did so very famously during the subprime crisis, but he's also done that in a way that is maybe even unique among big generalist investors in the gold space with specific stocks that he has served as a catalyst for being able to recharge them and remultiply their value.

If you look at Slide 9, you have a great case study with the turnaround of Detour Gold, where it was the nomination and the putting in of John's director slate that led to the optimization of the mine plan. And ultimately, Detour acquiring Kirkland Lake and Agnico acquiring Detour. And anybody who has stayed in over that time is probably up about 500% during a period that we know is not characterized by such outsized wins.

If you look at Slide 10, more recently, you have a case study of what the Paulson team has done to be able to take Perpetua from what was a year or so ago, a $3 stock now well into the 20s on the back of its gold and it's being a critical mineral provider for the United States. When you look at the different tranches along the way, you can clearly see a thoughtful as well as a successfully impactful value creation model for both Detour and perpetual.

Now for something a little bit different. If we go to Slide 11, this is not as egotistical as it seems. It's -- in order to be able to underscore certain points which I would like to make to shareholders of NovaGold, many of whom over the years have become very close personal friends and there are a few things that really aren't spoken about as much at this time as I think perhaps should be. Fortunately, they are for better or worse, all pointing to NovaGold as being the Holy Grail in the gold space.

For many, many years, and this is just simply to validate the statement I have argued, going back to $550 gold that the first equilibrium price for gold [indiscernible] $5, 000 I was asked because I easily see it when it breaks out going to $5,000. And as things get more volatile, perhaps correcting the 3 before it goes to another area. In some of the interviews I gave to David Rubenstein, some in writing. I made mention of my view that $3,000 to $5,000 was the first equilibrium level based on the fundamentals that I saw at the time, and I must pause to say that this is before the global financial crisis.

I knew when this happened that, that forecast would be superseded by another one. But as gold was staying in a trading range, I saw no reason to run whatever credibility I'd lost by saying publicly when gold was $550 that I saw it multiplying tenfold to just basically keep my mouth shut and maybe allude to it. Well, I'd like to take you to Slide 12 and revisit some of the important fundamentals for gold.

Gold is in a major, major, major bond market. And for years, I have said when asked what can go wrong in my thesis. The one thing that has made me nervous is that I couldn't find a reason. This goes back now to 2007, 2008. And if anything, everything that has transpired since then has only affirmed in my mind that there's a reason why the prudent man rule was devised in order to measure the risk of all assets against what was viewed as the safest asset gold.

Now gold is definitely money. People have definitions of what money is, what a currency is. But the reality is that nothing has had a longer pedigree as a historic safe haven. Certainly, those who said that no longer exists, have missed out on the early stages, the early innings of what I see is gold being in a much bigger bull market than what we've seen. It's proven to be a fabulous asset diversifier. It's been a protection against deflation. It's been a protection against inflation. The emerging market demand has been exquisite.

I've said for so many years, whenever you see the Indians and the Chinese competing over who can be the biggest buyer of a scarce asset, you just want to own some of it. Every Indian, every Chinese since the dawn of man kind who has placed faith in bold is making a killing. We call that in psychology positive reinforcement. More importantly, every investment banker who had the guts to say we shouldn't sell our gold or even was willing to bet a body part that they should be buying gold has probably been issued the order of the father land for their [ presence ]. They have seen the revaluation of gold which is so critical for central banks.

Meanwhile, on the demand side, you've got all of these tailwinds, but look at what you have on the supply side. discoveries in gold are so few and far between. Anything of size is rarer than a hens tooth. And the fact is to be able to take a mine, well, to be able to take a prospect to what ultimately is a producing mine has been variously estimated at between 1,000 to 10,000 to 1 against the explorer. Meanwhile, if you are lucky enough, on average, it takes 20 years plus to be able to take that project from discovery through to a mine.

In other words, in terms of supply coming out into the market from gold companies, number one, the horse has already left the barn. Number two, we won't have to see the results of that for 20 years. And unlike hydrocarbons, you [indiscernible] large tracked spaces where you have the hydrocarbons, but you have to figure out how to get it out. It just doesn't exist in gold. In other words, depending on your point of view, it's either the perfect alignment with stars or it's the perfect storm. One way or the other, I have no doubt that every portfolio manager is going to end up having an allocation to gold. Do I think they're going to go back to 10% to 15% as was the norm through the 1970s? Well, if we even approached a few percent, gold will already probably be 5 digits.

So let's discuss what a real market looks like and why someone who does have spending can explain his view, I could be completely wrong. It's a forward-looking statement, probably should say, you know don't listen to what I'm saying, but let's look at the next slide. Let's look at Slide 13. Slide 13 is the [indiscernible] since the 1970s. And what you see in that bull market is almost imperceptibly the Dow breaking out of what was a 30-year trading range between $800 and $1,000, breaking above $1,000.

Now the old-timers who knew that you go short when that happens, we're blown away by the young people with red braces or suspenders who thought, this tooling is different. And here's the thing about this time is different. A lot of us will say, yes, when you hear that, you think of people thinking [indiscernible] except for one simple fact, every reversal is characterized by that time, indeed being different. And that's what happened to the Dow in the 1980s.

As a curiosity, I want you to go back and look towards the mid-1980s. And maybe you need glasses, but look at that blip, that blip, which fairly is noticeable. That is the crash of 1987, that a lot of us thought was going to be the harbinger of the 4 horsement of the apocalypse. That -- you can't even see it as the Dow marched from 1,000 to a 45-plus LEAP in value over the decades.

Now I don't think this is a spoiler alert. It's entirely possible that we will see something similar happening in gold. I think it was announced yesterday that for the first time the Golden Fort Knox is worth over $1 trillion. That's interesting. But what's fascinating is that gold has now surpassed the euro as the second largest global reserve asset. Now many of you will say, well, that's because of the price appreciation. And my answer to that would be, yes, no kidding. However, we really do have to understand that this is a major, major statement about the reappraisal of gold as a monetary asset at a time when we are in the world in unchartered waters, not just in terms of the financial markets and debt trade and, of course, geopolitical trends which are unlike anything that we've seen since the end of the second world war.

But I'd like to quote Ray Dalio, who I think is really probably the best applied historian of those who are in the financial world. Gold is now the second largest reserve currency behind the U.S. dollar. To understand why we need to look at the history of CF currencies like the dollar and hard currencies like gold. The way I see it, we're currently facing a classic currency devaluation similar to what we saw in the 1970s or in the 1930s. In both of those cases, fee up currencies around the world all went down together and also went down in relationship to hard currencies like gold.

[indiscernible] years ago, when gold still supported a 1,000 handful, Ray Dalio said that "anyone who doesn't own gold either doesn't understand economics or the history of gold." And not wanting to be cast as a gold bug, he put it in a very sober way and just said, "You should own some gold" which, of course, was echoing things that I said, and of course, other great proponents of gold as well. We were hardly unique, but you probably could have fit into a relatively small restaurant or a dining table.

But in any event, what we're seeing now is an epic reversal in the same way as the Dow going to 3,000 and having a correction that took it down and anyone who held and just basically said that's a correction. Some had the perspicacity to say, "I'm going to buy more. But those who understood that this is the natural cycle and held it have had one of the great generational trades in world history. I believe that the same is taking place in gold itself now. I don't believe that we're in nosebleed territory, of course, we can have a correction. We will, at some point along the continuum.

And I would argue people should keep some powder dry and when that correction comes, have the guts don't [indiscernible] to add to that position because the next wave up is going to be very, very sweet. This is going to be a very, very [indiscernible] alluded to it. I didn't want to say it until I thought, at least I have the credibility for my first phase to be in place.

Now what does that mean for NovaGold shareholders? Well, the great news is that it has the potential to give no gold and the very, very few large-scale, well-managed, high-grade, high-volume assets to be able to get by far the premium rating in the space. I do believe that we will see U.S. assets be valued. If they have exploration potential for sure, with 0% discount rates because of jurisdictional safety. The flip side of that as one who did really well in Latin America and Africa, is that I do believe that in most countries, certainly those where the rule of law is more of a novelty like in West Africa, which we're seeing, but it's also happening in other places, gold mines are going to be nationalized.

And this would be extremely sad. There is nothing worse than all of you who are bullish on gold. They even have bought into a great asset. I'm not saying that there aren't really excellent assets in unsafe jurisdictions. But then have it taken away from you because they were great assets in places where the government basically said, wait a minute, you're minting money. You're really minting money. It's not a slogan. We want that. It's force majeure. It's a choice between your shareholders and our shareholders, which is our population. And I tell you there won't be any governments which will have any sway with these governments when they pull off that trip. We've seen it. And no matter what your relationships are in that country, it won't mean anything.

Mark Bristow did more to put Mali on the map than any other human. They rewarded him with his fidelity and his charisma, by basically stealing the asset. Mongolia tried to do the same with Bob Friedland. We saw what's happened to companies with assets in Panama, in Guatemala. This is a contagion, it's a disease because when governments, whether they're autocrats or democracies, see someone else being able to get a better deal, they have to be able to respond by giving at least as good a deal to their own shareholders or have the risk of being accused of being in the mining company's pocket or simply not attending to the needs of their people.

So again, this is a public service announcement from someone who's been there and seen what these countries are like and managed to get out with 100x returns in silver, in Latin America, in platinum and palladium in Africa. And gold, I sold Kibali to Mark Bristow, wonderful mine. I hope and wish for the best for Barrick in Congo. Also in Pakistan, these are different philosophies, but my attitude is I have adopted Woody Allen's famous line. I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens. And why would I want to when for all the reasons that Greg Lang is going to be laying out, you have everything that you could possibly want for a high-octane, high-volume high-grade, low-cost producer in the safest jurisdiction in the world or as we'll see on the next slide, Slide 14, what we call maximum leverage to gold, but in a jurisdiction that will allow you to keep the fruits of that leverage.

Now what you see here is with gold at $3,500, you have a 0% discount rate, $50 billion, and that makes no allowance for the extraordinary inevitable exploration upside that we have at Donlin. So much so that I contend that it's entirely possible forward-looking statement is regard to everything about to say that the next Donlin will be found at Donlin. Only 5% of that district has been explored. Only 3 kilometers of 8-kilometer mineralized belt, the 5% has the 40-plus million ounces of both that we already believe can add tens of millions of ounces.

So when you think that 95% is unexplored, now you understand between that and being based in the United States in one of the safest jurisdictions, you can see why I do believe a 0% discount rate will be justified. But even so, we're nearly $20 billion at an NPV for Donlin. The $12 to $15 target that we set as Phase 1 for the doubling of NovaGold is not unreasonable by any stretch. I hope it will prove to be cautious. One thing that I would say is for us, as investors in this space for over 30 years, you want to seek great assets in great places with management that knows how to build things and shareholders, I must say, who are aligned. And you have all of that in NovaGold.

So before Greg goes more granular, this is why you're going to see what we hope to be a steady stream of good news that will more than make up for lost time that take us on the path to building America's largest gold mine. We are already working with top-tier firms to be able to position us for the bankable feasibility study, the bankable feasibility study will be coinciding with advanced engineering. We hope to begin construction in 2027, being our target for production.

I also have to point out that in the first 10 years, we'll be producing roughly 1.4 million ounces a year. That's why we'll be the largest in the country. But it's entirely possible that we would be able to sustain that production. We start with a 28-year mine life. So for all of the reasons that you see, we are very, very comfortable that this project will be able to be financed sovereign wealth funds. It's entirely possible that government is closer to home may take a very great interest in this strategic asset. They're offtake providers. And of course, we believe that the equity will be a multiple of where it is today when we have the construction decision and that we will be comfortably positioned to be able to pull the trigger and really enjoy the fruits of what we and our native corporation partners and Alaska have been waiting for so long.

And with that, I will pass the baton to my brother in arms Greg Lang.

All right. Thank you, Tom. Next, I'd like to introduce Peter Adamek, our Chief Financial Officer, to cover the third quarter highlights.

Thank you, Greg. Turning to our operating performance on Slide 17. NovaGold reported a net loss of $15.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. This represents an increase of $4.9 million from the comparable prior year period primarily due to higher field expenses at Donlin Gold and higher general and administrative expenses. NovaGold's third quarter results reflect the company's 60% interest in Donlin Gold following the closing of the acquisition of an additional 10% of Donlin Gold at the beginning of the quarter on June 30, 2025.

Donlin Gold expenses in the third quarter and the first 9 months of 2025 were higher with increased site activity in 2025 compared to the prior year when field activities were minimal. General and administrative expenses increased in the third quarter from the comparable prior year primarily due to higher share-based compensation, partially offset by lower professional fees.

Turning to Slide 18. Our treasury decreased by $193.5 million to $125.2 million at the end of the third quarter primarily due to the closing of the acquisition of an additional 10% of Donlin Gold. This was partially offset by the exercise of an over-allotment option from our May equity offering providing an additional $25.5 million to the company in the third quarter. Consideration paid and transaction costs incurred totaling $210.1 million for the 10% acquisition of Donlin Gold were capitalized to the company's investment in Donlin Gold.

Excluding the Donlin acquisition and over-allotment exercise, corporate G&A costs during the third quarter declined by $0.3 million, and our share of Donlin Gold funding increased by $5.2 million due to the company's increased Donlin Gold funding obligation and increased site activity in 2025.

Moving to Slide 19. As discussed on the previous slide, our treasury decreased to $125 million at the end of the third quarter. Following the acquisition of an additional 10% of Donlin Gold on June 3, a reexamination of the Donlin Gold budget was completed by the current owners of the project. Some activities that were originally planned for 2025 were redirected to support work on the bankable feasibility study with no material impact expected on Donlin Gold's previously announced $43 million budget for 2025. As such, NovaGold's pro rata share of Donlin Gold's $43 million budget has increased to $24 million in light of the company's incremental 10% funding obligation starting in the third quarter.

Our share of funding for Donlin Gold in the first 9 months of 2025 was $18.5 million, which is in line with the revised 2025 guidance. Also, as a result of the closing of the Donlin Gold transaction, we expect to incur higher professional fees for the year, resulting in an increase of NovaGold's 2025 corporate G&A costs to $18 million from our previous guidance of $16 million.

I will now turn the presentation over to Greg to discuss third quarter highlights.

We had a very active quarter for NovaGold [indiscernible]. In September, we completed the 18,000-plus meter drill program. This program employed over 80 people, including locals from 22 villages in the region that supported drilling, logistics, environmental monitoring and other site activities. We hosted numerous visits during the quarter. We had 5 separate visits. These included tours with investors and analysts. We had an owner's tour with our partners, Calista and TKC, and we've met with people that can provide infrastructure support to advance the project.

In addition, Donlin welcomed the Cripple Creek Traditional Tribal Council to visit the site. This is the closest community to the project. Other tools included representatives from the State of Alaska, the congressional delegation as well as representatives from Sameer Makowski, Sullivan and Senator Baggage offices. Additionally, we finalized more shared value statements with communities in the region, increasing this total to 19.

We continue to build on the progress in our aquatic Hapicat restoration project and improved access to the local resin-fish areas impacted by historic plastomining. And lastly, Donlin continued to be active in a variety of community events that celebrate cultural preservation, strengthened stakeholder relationships and promoted the economic and social well-being of the people in the region.

Turning to Slide 22. The completion of the drill program, which was expanded to support the new resource model and advancement of the bankable feasibility study reinforces our project's long-term development strategy. This year's program with initial results confirming consistent mineralization across multiple zones including the top 5 intervals with grades ranging from about 4 grams up to 23 grams per tonne.

The drilling focused on 3 principal activities: grid drilling, to further assist the mine planning efforts; impact exploration drilling focused on enhancing the geologic modeling and supporting resource conversion. And finally, geotechnical drilling for pit wall stability and mine design material sites for the access road from the port to the Donlin Gold segment. Reclamation of all of the expirations from this program have been completed.

Turning to permitting and litigation-related activities. We have submitted the preliminary design package to the state agencies and the process is underway. This will complete the submission for the tailings dam and related water retention structures. In the state litigation, we continue to support the agencies in defending their issues of the Donlin water rights, pipeline and 401 certification. The case is challenging. These aspects of the project have been fully briefed and argued before the Alaska Supreme Court within decisions anticipated in 2026.

In the federal litigation, the District Court issued an order on remedy denying the request to vacate the permits and remanding the case to the agencies to supplement the Nipa analysis. The court retained jurisdiction over the case during this remand and ordered the agencies to file updates within the court. We understand the regulatory aspect, Donlin Gold and its partners are committed to supporting the state and federal agencies in the defense of our permits.

My next few slides really touch on the highlights of Donlin Gold and its key attributes that make the project unique. Turning to Slide 25. Donlin will be a big mine. It will average over 1 million ounces a year throughout its 27-year mine life with cash costs well below industry averages. Not only is it big, but it's great grade at 2.25 grams is 1 of the highest grade undeveloped open pit deposits in the industry. As our Chairman articulated, we had tremendous exploration potential, both at depth along strike and within a district, which is substantially underexplored.

Alaska is a great place to do business to state that understands and supports a well-established tradition of responsible mining, our project is on private land owned by 2 Alaska Native Corporations. We have life of mine agreements in place with both of them. Our penal federal are in hand and state permitting what little remains is well on track. We're committed to environmental storage ship and the well-being of our people and our communities. We've long enjoyed strong support our dedicated long-term institutional investors.

Dolan's strategic asset, as envisioned today, it would be America's largest gold mine. Of buying of all the developing projects out in the industry, none have a production profile approaching out of dock. Its first 10 years will average 1.4 million ounces a year followed by many decades over 1 million ounces per year.

Turning to the next slide. Greg really separates Donlin from the other development gold projects. At grades of 2.25 grams, it's better than double the global industry average grade, which is just barely over 1 gram. This high grade, it contributes to the low cash cost. This slide depicts the mineralized trend at Donlin. The 40 million ounces are contained in and around the [indiscernible] and Luis ore bodies. The remaining 5 kilometers of the 8-kilometer trend has gold bearing intercepts already in place. When the time is right, we will resume drilling a long trend, and we will continue to explore the remaining areas of the property.

Yes. Alaska is a great place to do business. While we were up in Alaska with the new owners, the Pulsing team, we met with the governor and he reiterated the importance of Donlin to the State of Alaska. Alaska is already the second largest gold producing state in the U.S. with the well-supported and well-served mining industry one of the top jurisdictions globally where it ranks third out of over 8 jurisdictions.

The Donlin project is on private land, which is owned by 2 Alaska Native Corporations. Calista owns mineral rights and TKC owns the surface rights. This land was transferred to the native corporations for their economic self-determination and it was designated for mining-related activities. In essence, they have a treaty with the U.S. government that permits mining to occur. Permitting is an arduous process in the United States, one we know very well.

Our key federal permits are in hand and the final state permits related to the tailings dam and water retention structures are well advanced, and we anticipate receiving these remaining permits well in advance of completing the bankable feasibility study. Our environmental, social and governance track record is impeccable. We have a well-diversified Board. The Donlin site has worked over a decade without a lost time accident. We value our people and we value the environment and that's reflected in our is NovaGold has always enjoyed strong institutional shareholder support. And this is true to this day.

Over 60% of our shares are held within the top 10. And you can see on the list very well-informed well-seasoned gold investors who understand the depth of the opportunity that NovaGold brings to our shareholders. upcoming catalysts for the company. Now that we have the new ownership structure in place, and the project's future is in focus. We are building on this momentum as we enter the next phase of development to maximize the value proposition of Donlin Gold and the exceptional leverage we bring. Our near-term catalysts include awarding a contract for the bankable feasibility study by year-end. The selection process for this is well advanced. We also anticipate releasing the drill results that remain from the program we completed in September.

We are gearing up discussions to evaluate potential financing sources. To support these activities, we are building out the project team for Donlin. And finally, we continue to support the state and federal agencies as they defend the permits they issue following a very rigorous process. We continue to engage with stakeholders throughout the state of Alaska, and we remain committed to being transparent in addressing the issues that are important to them. Thank you. We will now open the lines for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Sandra Iyer with B. Riley Securities.

Congratulations on the quarter. I'm Sandra on behalf of Nick Giles from B. Riley Securities. Just touching on the exploration drill results, so I mean all of the top 5 drill results are like impressive and about the current resource rate with high-grade intervals up to 23 grams a tonne. Could you provide more color on how these results compare to your resource model expectations and the continuity of the ore body.

Sure. Yes, thank you for joining the call this morning. We are very pleased with the results. A couple of things to point out with them. We were drilling under-explored areas in the pit and we encountered mineralization in areas that were previously modeled as waste. So it demonstrates the potential still exists in and around in known ore bodies. The best place to look for gold is in a gold mine, and we're certainly demonstrating that.

The other important aspect to point out about the drilling is one of the analysts took all of the intercepts and added them up and averaged them and they came out just under 4 grams. And I think when you look at that random sampling of 4 grams over 18,000 meters and you compare that to the average grade of Donlin at 2.25 grams, just random drill results really demonstrate there's still upside potential at the Donlin ore bodies and that we're further drilling, which we anticipate doing over time, and we expect to continue to increase and enhance our knowledge of the ore body.

Just a follow- on that one. So are we planning to build the resource and incorporate these results before we put out a [indiscernible] study?

Well, we are -- we've released the results of about half of the assays from this year's drug program and probably within the next month, as the assays come in, we will release the balance of them. This -- the results from this year's drill program will be incorporated into the geologic model that we use to support the bankable feasibility study.

The next question comes from David Lasinski with Accurate.

My question is to Tom Kaplan. To me, it seems like common sense that if I was a royalty company that I would approach NovaGold prematurely to get the best deal. So I guess my question is, can you elaborate on the interest in royalty companies as far as financing the project?

Well, first of all, thank you for the question. And typically speaking, I would cite Voltaire who said that common sense is not so common. However, the royalty companies do possess common sense. And I think it's very fair to say that should we wish to enter into a royalty or stream or any other instrument of that kind, we are pretty assured that, that would be forthcoming. Royalty companies do exhibit common sense. Part of our business model.

And the second question is, have you contemplated these many nuclear reactors instead of natural gas for power for Donlin? Have you explored that?

Sure. We've -- when we looked at powering the Donlin project, we've considered all options. And nuclear reactors, that's curiosity, but I think it's still many, many years out into the future. natural gas remains only the best way of powering the Donlin site. There's a development that we're following with great interest up in Alaska. Next, the President has a keen interest in seeing a pipeline built to deliver natural gas from the north slope into the [indiscernible]. And the [indiscernible] is where Donlin plans to import their natural gas.

So this pipeline is built and certainly be very beneficial to the project to have a cheap Alaska-based source of natural gas. So we're following that very closely, and we will continue to monitor developments with the small-scale reactors. But like I said, I think that's many, many years away.

Okay. And congratulations on all the work you guys have been doing, and I really appreciate it.

Yes, we have some questions coming in from the line, from the webcast. The first coming in from that back I am so happy that John Paulson has joined. I know that this will accelerate the process. Is there any new projected date for construction to take place.

I think as outlined in our presentation today, our immediate focus is getting the bankable feasibility study contract awarded and kicking that work off in 2026. We will complete that work in about 18 to 24 months, positioning us to make a construction decision. Once that decision is made, it would take about 4 years construction to build the site. So that puts commercial production somewhere around the year 2031.

We have a few questions coming in from Chris Gates. Any updates on the tailings dam permit? Do you expect any opposition.

The [indiscernible] just for background, that's the last remaining state permit. The federal permit authorizes us to disturb land, and that includes the tailings dam. But then the last structures like that are administered by the state and require final engineering drawings before the state will issue the permits for operation. So we always knew it was an expensive permit to obtained because of the geotechnical drilling and the engineering to support the design.

So we waited until that was later in the project line. Several years ago, we completed the geotechnical drilling. And we've submitted the preliminary design packages to the state and they're under review. So we anticipate we'll have these permits in hand well before the banker book feasibility study in the tank. And the state is very familiar with large-scale mining operations, and we expect these permits will be in hand in the normal course of the process.

And then the final question also from the line of Chris Gates, any updates on the Alaska Supreme Court decision.

Now the cases before the Supreme Court are fully briefed, and we are awaiting decisions. And we are optimistic that we will continue to prevail in the courts as we have every step of the way. But we are ready to the decisions that can come at any time or it could be 6, 8 months into the future. So we're just vantiously awaiting that. I think that concludes our webcast for the third quarter. Thank you for taking the time to join us.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.