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  discusses. I also believe in Tier-One assets. In fact, I’m even more stringent, certainly when it comes to what I’m looking
for in an asset that can really move the needle in terms of production and reserves for a company. An asset like Donlin Gold, for example. In fact, our mantra over the last 30 years has been great assets. Now it’s great assets in safe jurisdictions. Mark’s attitude, I believe, is that it’s all about the assets. Even if those jurisdictions are challenging, he has the skillset to be able to navigate those challenges. And if anyone can do it, I think it’s Mark. So when we look at Donlin Gold, I’m not sure that that indicates that he sees it from a jurisdictional standpoint. I think what I can say is that he understands this can easily evolve into a Tier-One producer.
I would say that being a Tier-One producer is absolutely critical in terms of being able to explain to investors why the long-term prospects of Donlin Gold, and hence NOVAGOLD, are so good. But I would say that for me as an investor, and I think
I speak for our shareholder base, we want not only Tier-One assets, we want Tier-One assets in Tier-One jurisdictions. We want to be able to sleep well at night, knowing that when we wake up in the morning, whatever we thought we owned the night before, we still own.
I think that what we’re seeing with Barrick, as evidenced
by the joint press release that we issued in December, is a recognition that Donlin Gold is now very much part of their project pipeline profile in a way that it wasn’t before. They are getting comfortable with it. Mark is a geologist. He is absolutely punctilious when it comes to geology. There was never a doubt that the gold is there, but Mark wants to be able to quantify how every ounce is going to come out over a 10-year period. And I’m the last person to gainsay such a dedication to one’s craft, but for me, this press release, I think, was a game-changer. And I think that in the not-too-distant future, when gold reaffirms its bull market trajectory, we will be the go-to stock in the development space. NOVAGOLD’s got all the attributes that investors will be looking for and they will want octane in their portfolio. We’ve seen M&A in the gold space take out name after name after name.
There’s a shortage of names that are in safe jurisdictions. And it’s hard to imagine capital is going to flow to Sukhoi Log before it flows to Donlin Gold.
I would agree with you. We’ve seen analysts attach valuations of 10 billion to 15 billion dollars on Sukhoi Log. Now that Barrick is starting
to talk about Donlin Gold, I
think that the bell is going to
start ringing. Remember, for
12 years we’ve been in the
story, and we have framed
the narrative on Donlin
Gold and we have, like the
tortoise and the hare, taken
this thing up the value chain
while other projects that
people thought would go
into production have, like the
hare, fallen by the wayside.
Donlin Gold is on the path. I
believe that Donlin Gold will
be a producer for decades
to come and that it will pay
dividends.
I’m not sure how patient I am on that sort of thing.
Look, we are now at the point where we have something that is pretty much permitted in a safe jurisdiction with great partners. We’re in great shape. Mark sees this – and Barrick knows even from experience in North America that a Record of Decision is a big deal. Barrick knows that being able to have a property that is on private land designated for mining, in an era when people are starting to talk about royalties on government land, is a big asset on top of what is demonstrably a very, very big asset. So my belief is that what we will see over the coming year is quite a bit of very positive news. The more we drill, the more we find. We say that Donlin Gold is a gift that keeps
on giving.
 CHAIRMAN’S INTERVIEW 21





































































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