NovaGold Resources Inc. (NG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is David Ottewell, and I am NovaGold vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for attending this virtual annual and special meeting of shareholders of NovaGold Resources Inc. We are grateful for your interest and support. NovaGold's Board members and executives are also attending this meeting virtually. For today's agenda, I will begin by taking us through the formal business portion of the meeting. Following the conclusion of formal business, Thomas Kaplan, NovaGold's Chairman; and Greg Lang, NovaGold's President and CEO, will provide an overview of NovaGold's 2020 results and the outlook for the remainder of 2021. We will conclude with an opportunity for shareholder questions. Copies of the management information circular, the 2020 shareholder meeting minutes and the rules and procedures for the conduct of the meeting are available to shareholders in the Materials section of the virtual meeting portal. For those of you joining the meeting as guests, the management information circular is available on our profile on SEDAR and EDGAR. We would like to set a few rules for the orderly conduct of the meeting. Due to the virtual nature of the meeting, voting results will be provided after the completion of the meeting in order to limit the wait time for tabulating the results of the votes provided. For specific vote tabulations, please see NovaGold's report of voting results, which will be posted to NovaGold's SEDAR profile at sedar.com and EDGAR profile at sec.gov. Voting on all matters will be conducted by electronic ballots using the Broadridge virtual interface. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be asked to vote on each business item. If you have already voted by proxy, it is important that you not vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your initial vote. When the polls are open, registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders may cast their votes using the voting button in the lower right-hand corner of the virtual meeting screen. You will only have a certain amount of time to vote before the polls close at the end of the formal business portion of the meeting. The online polls are now open for voting. [Operator Instructions] Please note that there will be a slight delay in the publication of the communications received. We will answer relevant questions on any matters in the agenda to be voted on by the shareholders at the meeting before the voting is closed. The meeting will now come to order. To expedite the meeting, I will move and in accordance with the articles of the company, no motion needs to be seconded. Pursuant to the articles of the company and with the consent of the meeting, I will act as a meeting Chair, and Tricia Pannier will act as meeting secretary. With the consent of the meeting, the Chair appoints Beth VanDerbeck as Scrutineer. The notice calling this meeting of the shareholders was mailed by Broadridge to all shareholders of record as of March 18, 2021. The declaration of mailing is available for inspection by any shareholder. Ms. Pannier will append the declaration of the schedule to the minutes of this meeting. The scrutineer has completed the tabulation of the shareholders present in person or represented by proxy. A quorum for a meeting of NovaGold's shareholders is achieved if at least 2 persons are personally present at the meeting, and those 2 persons hold or represent by proxy, shareholders who, in the aggregate, hold not less than 25% of the issued shares of the company entitled to vote at the meeting. The report of the scrutineer indicates that a quorum is present. And as notice has been properly given, I declare this meeting regularly and duly called and constituted for the transaction of business. There are 6 items of formal business before the meeting today. One, to verify the minutes of the 2020 annual meeting of shareholders; two, to receive the annual report of the directors containing the consolidated financial statements of the company; three, to elect directors for the forthcoming year; four, to appoint the company's auditor and to authorize the directors through the Audit committee to fix the auditors remuneration for the forthcoming year; five, to consider and approve certain amendments to the company's articles; and six, to consider and approve a nonbinding resolution approving the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The minutes of the annual meeting of shareholders held on May 14, 2020, have been made available for review by any shareholder. Receiving no objections, the minutes will be taken as read and verified. We will now present the annual report of the directors containing the consolidated financial statements of NovaGold for the year ended November 30, 2020, together with the auditor's report thereon. A copy of the annual financial statements was mailed to each shareholder of record who specifically requested a copy. Copies are also available for a review of the company's website at sec.gov and at sedar.com. [ Eric Talman ] of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the company's auditor, is present at the meeting today. [Operator Instructions] The next item of business is the election of directors. The Board of Directors and shareholders determined that the business of the company can be properly conducted by a Board consisting of 10 directors. 10 individuals have been nominated to serve on the Board of Directors as set out in the management information circular. The nominees are: Dr. Elaine Dorward-King, Sharon Dowdall; Dr. Diane Garrett, Dr. Thomas Kaplan; Greg Lang, Igor Levental; Kalidas Madhavpeddi, Clynton Nauman, Ethan Schutt and Anthony Walsh. There being no more nominations, I declare the nominations closed. I will move to the next item of business. The next item of business is to appoint auditors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting. There is a motion before the meeting that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, be appointed auditors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting or until their successors are duly appointed and that the directors through the audit committee be authorized to fix their remuneration. I will move to the next item of business. The next item of business -- of the special business is to consider, and if not fit, approve certain amendments to the company's articles. A description of the proposed amendments to the article and the special resolution before the shareholders is contained on Pages 10 through 13 of the management information circular. The full text of the articles, including the proposed amendments, is set out in the appendix A of the management information circular. Now moving to the next item of business. The next side of business is to consider, and if not fit, approve a nonbinding resolution to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The company's compensation discussion and analysis is contained on Pages 30 through 61 of the management information circular. The full text of the proposed nonbinding resolution approving the compensation of the company's named executive officers is set out on Page 14 of the management information circular. I will move to the voting on the foregoing items of business. As previously mentioned, the polls are now open and all registered holders and proxy holders who have properly logged in with their control numbers and wish to vote, are able to vote all motions being brought forth at this meeting by clicking on the voting bottom in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. If you have already voted by proxy, you do not need to vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your initial vote. If you have not already done so, please register your votes by accessing the voting page and selecting the for or withhold button next to the name of each proposed director and next to the resolution with respect to the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's auditors. Please register your vote by selecting the for, against or withhold buttons next to the special resolution approving the amendments to the company's articles and the nonbinding resolution approving the compensation of the company's named executive officers. As no questions were received on the proposals, we will pause for a few moments to allow time for voting before closing the poll meeting on the proposals before this meeting. [Voting]

Voting has now closed, and I have received the preliminary results of the vote on all matters before the meeting from the Scrutineer. I declare Dr. Elaine Dorward-King, Sharon Dowdall; Dr. Diane Garrett, Dr. Thomas Kaplan; Greg Lang, gor Levental, Kalidas Madhavpeddi, Clynton Nauman. Ethan Schutt and Anthony Walsh elected as directors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders of NovaGold or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be and are hereby appointed auditors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly appointed and that the directors through the audit committee, be and are hereby authorized to fix their remuneration. The special resolution approving the amendments to the company's articles carried by a special majority or at least 2/3 of the votes cast on the resolution and the nonbinding resolution approving the compensation of the company's named executive officers carried by a majority of votes cast on the resolution. Details as to the votes for or withheld from voting for each individual nominee will be disclosed in the manner provided for in the major -- majority voting policy and full voting results of this meeting will be posted on the company's SEDAR profile at sedar.com and EDGAR profile at sec.gov after this meeting. That concludes the formal items of business, and I declare that the formal business of this meeting is now terminated. Thank you for your attention. I will now turn the time over to Greg Lang, NovaGold's President and CEO.

Thank you, David, and thank you, everyone, for joining today's virtual annual and special meeting of shareholders. I will be providing a company overview of the past year and an outlook for 2021. Our Chairman, Dr. Thomas Kaplan, will then speak about the gold market and how it pertains to NovaGold and our flagship Donlin Gold project in Alaska. I would like to remind our participants that 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 that are detailed in our various EDGAR and SEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation. I'd like to start today by speaking to a brief background on NovaGold and the advancement of the Donlin Gold project. As shown on Slide 4, since 2012, when Dr. Kaplan and myself joined the company, we have delivered on many promises kept throughout the past 9 years. These goals could not have been met had it not been for our well-established partnerships with our native corporations, the Calista Corporation and the Kuskokwim Corporation, along with our partner, Barrick Gold and NovaGold's management team. Since the company reorganization in 2012 to focus on Donlin Gold and the commencement of permitting that same year, this unique top-tier asset has been brought up the value chain through a targeted drill program in 2017, the receipt of a record of decision and other permits that completed the federal permitting for the project in 2018 to the delivery of key state permits and the advancement of other state permits over the past few years. And up to our successful 2020 drill program, the largest program at the project since 2008 that exceeded grade thickness parameters predicted by previous modeling. We have continued to deliver on our stated strategy and have not wavered from our objective of advancing one of the best and highest quality open pit, undeveloped gold deposits in the industry. Donlin is in the western part of the great state of Alaska, as shown on Slide 5, and is a 50-50 partnership with Barrick Gold. Mining is an important part of the Alaskan economy, and it's becoming even more important to state revenues and employment. As shown on the map, there are 6 large producing mines and numerous exploration and development projects in the state. In terms of scale, quality and exploration potential, Donlin Gold's attributes far exceed any other gold development project on the horizon. When comparing our long-standing native corporation partnerships, the exceptional leverage to a rising gold price, a strong cash position with key federal and state permits in hand as well as long-term supportive shareholders, NovaGold has all the hallmarks needed to enhance the value of one of the best assets in the industry. NovaGold and Barrick jointly released the remaining assay drill results in March for the 85-hole 23,000 meter 2020 drill program. The largest program in 12 years, which yielded higher grade thicknesses than predicted by modeling and has shown improved interpretation of the gold mineralization controls. Slide 6 shows the top 10 intervals from the 2020 drill program with core locations in both the ACMA and Lewis deposits. These results have reinforced our confidence in recent geologic modeling concepts and confirmed multiple high-grade extensions in both the intrusives and sedimentary rock, including near surface. Additional confirmation and extension drilling is currently underway at the site. It is anticipated that on the completion of the '21 drill program and geologic model update that this should wrap up the work needed for us to make a decision on the next steps for Donlin Gold in the second half of this year. As noted on Slide 7, federal permits are in hand and additional key state permits and approvals have also been obtained, while we continue to make progress on the remaining state permits. There are 3 primary state permitting areas that remain outstanding, none of which are on the critical path for the project's development. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, division of oil and gas, has agreed to reconsider its decision on the state right-of-way agreement and lease authorization for the buried gas pipeline. The comment period on the document ended in November 2020, and we expect the division to reissue the right-of-way agreement and lease authorization in the coming months. Alaska also published an additional public notice for comment on Donlin Gold's 12 applications for water rights for the mine site and transportation facilities. This closed in December 2020. In March 2021, with Donlin Gold support, Alaska introduced a second 2-week public comment period, which closed on March 26. We anticipate a final decision in the coming month. The dam safety certifications process is a multiyear commitment to collect additional geotechnical information to advance the engineering work on the tailings facility, from feasibility level to final construction drawings. This work will resume once the path forward is determined. We are proud to say that the 2020 drill program was safely and successfully completed, and it was done with 0 COVID cases at the project site. As noted on Slide 8, for the past year, policies were implemented to reduce risk and ensure the safety and well-being of all employees and contractors. Alaska is a leader among the United States in COVID vaccination availability. Much of the success of the vaccination campaign in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region can be credited in large part to the leadership of the Y-K Health Corporation and native health partners who had made home visits in remote communities, use the extensive medical clinics and even offered vaccinations nations outside the grocery store in Bethel. Donlin Gold's stringent safety measures and on-the-ground support allowed us to safely operate 4 drill rigs last summer for the 2020 program and careful collaboration with our native partners as well as other tribal groups in the region, were key to a safe and successful field season. This established protocol is being followed for the 2021 field season, which is already underway. Donlin Gold proudly supports the needs of its community partners. Our community engagement highlights can be seen on Slide 9. In partnership with TKC, the Village of Crooked Creek and the Napaimute Tribe, Donlin was once again the lead sponsor of a project to construct and maintain upper portions of an ice road on the Kuskokwim River. At its completion in February, the ice road was approximately 200 miles long. Another initiative Donlin Gold has supported over the past few years is the Backhaul Hazardous Waste Removal project. And in 2020, 45,000 pounds of hazardous household materials were removed through the various villages throughout the Y-K region. To date, Donlin Gold has signed 6 friendship agreements with villages in the Y-K region that formalize current engagement with local communities. These agreements expand on the long-term relationships already established with these communities, and they address specific community needs such as water, sewer, landfill projects, salmon studies and suicide prevention programs. We support Calista and TKC mandates through the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. This act, as highlighted on Slide 10, to help them develop their land for the economic benefit of the region and all stakeholders involved. Donlin Gold is fortunate to have time-tested partnerships with Calista and TKC, owners of the minerals and surface rights. The project's location on private land specifically designated 4 mining activities through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is a key attribute that distinguishes it from other mining assets in Alaska. With a long history of mining and a skilled workforce in Alaska, Donlin Gold offers the opportunity of a positive future with good paying year-round careers and training for young people to allow them to live closer to home. About 80% of our local workforce in 2020 were Alaskan natives, and we are proud to provide significant economic and social benefits to the region. We are thankful for the long-term support of our native corporation partners, who are committed to the project and its continued success. Over the past 25 years, Donlin Gold has worked closely with Calista and TKC, along with other key representatives of the communities in the region to effectively respond to the needs ranging from environmental management, training and education and cultural initiatives. On Slide 11, you can see quotes from the leadership of our native corporation partners. These partnerships and the activities and programs we undertake together are illustrative of our commitment to the sustainable and responsible development of the Donlin Gold project for the benefit of all stakeholders. I will now turn to Donlin Gold key attributes that really distinguishes it from any other gold asset in the industry. As shown on the bar chart on Slide 12, when you look at the measured and indicated resource of 15 comparable large gold projects in the Americas, Donlin Gold is the largest in its category with the resource that is about 4x greater than the average. A federally permitted project that starts with almost 40 million ounces in resources is almost unheard of, especially located in a jurisdiction where the rule of law is not a novelty. The second key attribute of Donlin is grade, which stands out as a central characteristic of any mineral deposit. A deposit with higher grade provides resilience through multiple commodity cycles, a key attribute to assure the successful development and survivability of any great mining operation. As shown on Slide 13, at 2.25 grams per ton, Donlin Gold has twice the average grade of all large open pit deposits. Not only is global gold production decreasing for most of the major producers, but average global grades have continued declining over the past decade. Scale is the project's third key attribute. There are only 3 operating mines in the world that produced greater than 1 million ounces annually in 2020, Donlin Gold would be in rare company. As currently envisioned, the project would average 1.1 million ounces per year for the life of mine, as shown on Slide 14. For the long-term investor, there's additional value that comes with the mine that has a multi-decade lifespan. As shown on Slide 15, the ACMA and Lewis pits occupy only 3 kilometers of an 8-kilometer mineralized belt. Potential to grow Donlin is its fourth key attribute. When the time is right, based on known areas of mineralization, there is future exploration potential to expand the current resource, both at long strike and at depth. Slide 16 presents the life of mine diagram for Donlin Gold as one of the largest open pit mining development projects. After years of exploration and resource enhancement technical studies, and the receipt of our federal record of decision and several key state permits, Donlin Gold has been substantially derisked and methodically brought up the value chain. It's a solid foundation to advance this rare and unique deposit. The time invested upfront to develop responsibly and sustainably is critical to the project's success. We believe our investors' patience will be rewarded. We issued several Donlin Gold updates with our partner, Barrick Gold, over the last year. Barrick also highlighted the latest activities in progress at Donlin as part of their first quarter results and during a Kitco interview with Mark Bristow last week. An exert of the interview is included in Slide 17. In 2021, we will integrate the 2020 drill program assay results into the model. We will complete additional confirmation and extension drilling to expand upon the recently obtained information into the continuity and structural controls of the higher grade mineralization that will also be included in the model. Then we will shift our attention to the next steps, which include, among other things, updating the project's feasibility study, subject to a formal decision by the Donlin Gold Board. On Slide 18, we note our robust treasury, with approximately $114 million in cash and term deposits as of the end of February. We have sufficient cash on hand to continue on the current path and up to a construction decision. We also had $75 million due from Newmont this July and an additional $25 million in July 2023. We continue to anticipate spending $31 million to $35 million in 2021, including $18 million to $22 million to fund our share of Donlin Gold and $13 million for our corporate G&A costs. As shown on Slide 19, we have recently launched our 2020 integrated annual report and sustainability summary that highlights NovaGold's and Donlin's steadfast commitment to the highest standards of environmental, social and governance practices. The report also features 2 comprehensive messages to our shareholders and NovaGold's hallmark question-and-answer section. Our Chairman's letter summarizes his thoughts on the current state of the industry and the emergence of cryptocurrencies, elaborates on his history with the company as well as its strategy. Speaks about NovaGold's strong alliances with Barrick Gold Corporation, our native corporation partners in Alaska and highlights the unique attributes of the Donlin Gold project. As shown on Slide 20, our sustainability summary includes 7 key sections: COVID-19 response, people, health and safety, partnerships, environmental responsibility, community and social responsibility and governance and corporate policies. Our internal ESG team saw input from proxy advisory firms, ESG professionals, institutional investors, pension fund managers and other peers. We have also worked with Barrick on forming a compatible and synchronized approach to reporting ESG information for Donlin Gold. As a result, NovaGold gained insight on best practices from a wide range of stakeholders and businesses in this area to help strike the right balance in ESG disclosures, especially considering the development stage of Donlin Gold and future needs as the project develops. You can view the full interactive report on our website. And with that, I will pass the meeting over to NovaGold's Chairman, Dr. Thomas Kaplan. Tom?

Great. It gives me great pleasure to be able to address our annual meeting. It always does. I wish that it could be in person next year. By framing the Donlin story, and hence, the value of NovaGold as a pure-play on this asset that we consider to be absolutely in its own league as far as development stage gold stories are concerned. So for a couple of years now, I found myself simply asking people who are familiar with the sector a simple question. It goes as follows: gold development stage asset in the industry compares in its combination of enormous size, higher grade for an open pit. And as we know, grade is king, and hence, the opportunity for low all-in sustaining costs, truly superb exploration [Audio Gap] of potentially the biggest pure gold mine in the world, a mine life measured in decades, excellent local industry partnerships. And importantly, in fact, with every week with increasing importance, the safety of being located in one of the world's premier jurisdictions. I've never heard any pushback [Audio Gap] not once. If one is being honest, then we acknowledge that, but here's the thing. If you can't challenge [indiscernible]. Next, what does that mean? What that means is that NovaGold itself is a pure-play on the [ premier ] development stage asset in the gold industry market. I fully expect that we are in the process or in preparation for a continuation of what is essentially a third wave in the gold bull market story. The first wave took us from $250 to $1,900. And the second wave took us from $1,900 back to [ Technical Difficulty ]. And the third wave, I believe, is a forward-looking statement, so you can disregard it. But the third wave, I believe will take us several thousand dollars higher. That's my personal opinion. The reasons for the bull market in gold are several fold. First of all, [ Technical Difficulty ] into crypto in a moment. Secondly, [indiscernible] think that acts as a hedge against inflation. It acts against the hedge against deflation, against currency debasement. And moreover, it suffered from [ Technical Difficulty ] within the gold industry, which are really, really, really coming to roost. Greg has already shown the attributes of Donlin, but essentially, those attributes have [ Technical Difficulty ] of the gold industry. Discoveries, there haven't been any in years of any meaningful size. The production profile of the mining companies means that there is a [ Technical Difficulty ] decline in gold production, which Barrick has estimated, is going to go on for years. Grade has plunged almost 50% in the last decade, and it's like capping a falling [ Technical Difficulty ] below, and it will go into an area that candidly becomes harder and harder to mine with assurance. So what we're dealing with is really a perfect storm for gold. You have all of the macro [ Technical Difficulty ] and you have the [ Technical Difficulty ] of the industry itself which are arguing for a higher equilibrium price in order to make gold production economically worthwhile. Now let's talk about crypto for a moment. Crypto is obviously a very exciting development. It's that most [indiscernible] crypto is called Gold 2.0. Whether that's the case for something like a bitcoin or a dogecoin or ethereum or the like, really doesn't matter. As far as we can see, what really counts is that the gold narrative, the one that inclines people to say that its Gold 2.0 has triumphed. For the first time in the 30 years that I've been in the gold business, I no longer have to explain to people why they should have some gold as part of their currency diversification. This is a huge watershed event. For what it means is that [ Technical Difficulty ] those who over $2,000 and hits new all-time highs, you're going to see people saying, "I want some of that." However, for reasons that we've just explained and will elaborate on just a little bit further, the voucher is really isn't there in terms of being able to acquire it at these prices. So when we look at crypto, we say to ourselves, this is an opportunity for us. [ Technical Difficulty ] because the crypto narrative gold narrative, except that has millennial problems. And even if you believe in the crypto narrative and certainly, aspects of it makes sense, there's nothing to suggest who will actually be the winners. As outlined in my Chairman's letter, I actually believe the crypto that succeeds will probably have a Chinese name attached to it. Be that as it may, focus this, that narrative is about the gold narrative. It's being about in something that can be printed at fiat rates, which as we've seen, where production is actually in the case of gold, declining as opposed to crypto, where actually [ Technical Difficulty ] are being minted on a daily basis. We always call ourselves the chordees in the hair because Donlin has managed to make it this far while the other assets that [ Technical Difficulty ] won't. I would say the same for Donlin, and it's very clear to us that we will be amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the entire narrative of currency [ Technical Difficulty ]. What's very clear is that reserves are declining, grades are declining and discoveries are [ Technical Difficulty ] between. Exploration expenditures plunged, but the truth is this, for all intents and purposes, unless you already have an asset that's been identified [ Technical Difficulty ] being able to find something or variously estimated at anywhere from 1,000 to 1 to 10,000 to 1. Unless we got that, the truth [ Technical Difficulty ] to likely take you on average 20 years to bring that into production. Let's say, you do a really, really great job of it and get lucky. We're talking about 10 to 15 years to get into production from the time you've made the discovery and buck those odds. If we're right, and the next wave of the gold bull market has begun [ Technical Difficulty ] this is already out of the barn. The assets that people want are going to be those things that offer all of the advantages of a Donlin. Basically, the advantage of being in the next Nevada. The new [ Technical Difficulty ] the exploration potential. But this district is so extraordinary. Look at what [ Technical Difficulty ] we already have an asset that in terms of the size and the grade and all the other attributes I've mentioned are unique. But it's almost unexplored in terms of its true potential. Even taking it [ Technical Difficulty ] resource around 3 kilometers of an 8-kilometer mineralized belt, the implication being that there's significant resource upside just from what we've identified. That 8 kilometers represents only [ Technical Difficulty ] of the land package. I've been in this business about 30 years and really made my fortune primarily through the drill bit [ Technical Difficulty ] that there's a very reasonable shot that the next Donlin is actually at Donlin in the same way as the next Nevada is likely within Nevada itself. But the truth is, I think Donlin, in its own right in terms of its size could [ Technical Difficulty ]. Without going through a list of the companies within the gold space and candidly, within the copper space and other metals. Almost on a weekly basis, it's starting to seem almost on a twice a week basis. We're hearing about companies which are the object of either de facto confiscation or we've seen even in the last week, effectively, de facto confiscation. It's almost too sad to discuss, and I [ Technical Difficulty ] the mentality was go where the gold is. And that took me to Bolivia, admittedly in search of silver. Certainly, many countries in Africa is over, and it's not I'm writing my own book. When I made that decision a decade ago, I was one of the largest holder of mineral rights in gold countries in the world. And because of that created alliances with Saudi, Emirati and Kuwaiti [ Technical Difficulty ] would be able to give me political risk insurance in many of the countries that I was operating in. I think that, that era is gone. And [indiscernible] investors are going to want is to be able to ask the broker who tells them, I'd like to introduce you to the management. They're really great, and they've got a great asset. One of the best in the world. I think that the first question that they're going to start saying is, well, tell me where in the world it is because I'd love to meet the management's assets. And if it's not a place, where I can [ Technical Difficulty ] watching or gambling or swinging on a great barrier reef. I just don't think that they're going to do it. I don't think fund managers, most of them are paid enough to take a risk on jurisdictions where they're going to have to explain when they wake up in the morning to their investment committee, why they just found themselves in a place where their assets [ Technical Difficulty ] going to pay a premium. I believe that they will value assets in safe places with 0% [ Technical Difficulty ]. So the American assets, U.S. assets were valued before I got the business. And what that means is that if you have assets that a fund manager can own. And when he goes to sleep or she goes to sleep at night, she knows when she wakes up in the morning, what [ Technical Difficulty ]. You're going to get the premium valuation. Those are the assets that are going to get financed. Those are the assets that are going to get acquired because the institutional investors are not going to be happy about acquisitions in places where the rule of laws and novelty. So not all ounces are the same. When people tell you, this has so many [ Technical Difficulty ] I love optionality as much as a person, but you got to ask, where are they? That's a gating factor, then ask what's the grade? Then ask, what's mine life? Will it be able to go through a couple of cycles, 3 cycles ideally. And when you [ Technical Difficulty ] these various attributes, you'll find that the practically longer [indiscernible] in the development stage. You really have to be talking about gold going to $5,000, $6,000 or more. Now I do believe that it will get there, but it's going to be a while before those things get acquired or go into production. We certainly are in a place where we are, which is something that's permitted in the United States. Next. Thank you. Not to dwell too much on this. I've really covered it. The reality is that there are very, very few large gold projects in production. As you can see [ Technical Difficulty ] the largest pure gold project in a safe jurisdiction and [indiscernible] comparable for it is what we call the analog, which is [indiscernible] in Russia. But as we say, they're probably a similar genealogy. One just happens to be on the right side, literally. So we're very, very happy to be in the company of an asset of that size as our only comparable, considering that, that is viewed as the engine of the Russian [ Technical Difficulty ] been attached to it, $10 million to $15 billion to $20 billion. We find ourselves in a very, very good company. Next. In terms of leverage, there's no [ Technical Difficulty ] Donlin provides fabulous leverage, but more than that [ Technical Difficulty ] leverage in a place where you can keep it. The discount rate that will be used for great U.S. asset, we think we'll go back to the 0% where they were [ Technical Difficulty ] really counts is that you're going to be able to make money in a place where the fruits of that leverage are something that you'll be able to enjoy. And in that respect, Donlin is [ Technical Difficulty ]. Next. Fortunately, we have allies, people who see the story as we did [ Technical Difficulty ] themselves the same question that I began with my part of the presentation. Where else do you get the size, the grade and all of the other attributes of a Donlin? And it's for that reason that we find ourselves being accumulated by some of the savviest investors in the world today. We're very happy that we have them in our corner, [indiscernible] about our ability to finance this project. We think [ Technical Difficulty ] that our share price will be multiples, where it will be today because the gold price will be higher. And the scarcity of assets will only be that much more [ Technical Difficulty ], grades will be lower [ Technical Difficulty ] will not have been made. For all of those reasons, we had Electrum as well as our other fellow shareholders now comprise almost 64% of the company [ Technical Difficulty ] are all united in a belief that Donlin is a truly unique asset. And so we land, once again on the landing page that Greg Lang began his exposition, and that is highlighting all of those things that make Donlin the best-in-breed and NovaGold as a unique play on Donlin, a go-to, a rare go-to asset in gold development space. Thank you. So with that, I believe that we can now entertain questions.

Dr. Kaplan, our first question's coming from [ Mark Session ], who is a shareholder. First question is has Biden environmental and ESG growth affected your developments in Alaska? So I would ask Greg to comment on this question.

Sure. The question if everybody couldn't hear it was if the change in administration has affected our development plans. Certainly, the answer is no. We started the federal permitting under a democratic administration. We completed it under a Republican administration. And now we've gone full circle. But at this stage, I do not anticipate any changes up in Alaska. And I think the permitting is done. And also, we're on private land owned by 2 Alaska native corporations. So we're steady as she goes.

Thank you. This next question is also from from [ Technical Difficulty ] will your company entertain share buybacks? I would like to have Dr. Tom to comment on the questions.

Well, I have to tell you, there was a time, and we [ Technical Difficulty ] on that when we did consider share buybacks. Alas, old market putting its bottom. In terms [ Technical Difficulty ] our attitude was that, and I suppose it remains the same. If you see the market itself go into some sort of silly season. [ Technical Difficulty ] Sure. We could look at that. At this point, we consider our shares to be even more valuable than the metal because every day that goes by the attributes of Donlin come back much more pronounced. But at time, I can't imagine it. I think that the position that we're in where we have the cash we need to be able to just all the way to a production [ Technical Difficulty ] a higher gold price level and with a higher share price level, I would believe that we could actually be multiples of the present share price. I don't think give [ Technical Difficulty ] give up the platform that we have. It's very nice for shareholders to be able to know that when they're buying us, we're simply not going to put them in the position where they get a call from their broker and say that the company is raising cash, doing a bulk deal or anything like that. We don't need the money, and I'm not going to ask our shareholders for it. And I feel very confident that when the time comes that we will want money, the opportunity presented for the financing of Donlin through project finance and other aspects of mitigating equity components, we'll make our shares that much more desirable. But right now, being in a position where our shareholders can say, they've got a great balance sheet. Our balance sheet is going to get even greater at the end of July. That actually gives people a premium because it removes a risk factor dilution prematurely.

Great. Thank you. We also have 3 additional questions that were submitted by e-mail. The first question, given the extensive amount of drilling that has occurred at Donlin. Can you expand, Greg, on the purpose of the 2021 growth program?

Sure. I'd be happy to talk about the purpose of the drill program that's underway this year. Since -- I'll take you back a little bit in time. When Dr. Bristow, President of Barrick, was at sight a couple of summers ago. I think he was intrigued by the geology and the work we were doing on the significance of the structures and their influence on the mineralization. And the program that we completed last year really came out of his visit, if we think about that now. This is pretty exciting. I think it's on the right track. Let's drill test it. Yes. And as we've disclosed, the results certainly exceeded our expectation. And we referenced Dr. Bristow's quote in our materials on this call. And certainly, he's understanding the geology is, first and foremost, marks mind before you can make a development decision. So this year's program is just following up on what we learned last year, tightening up the structural controls on the mineralization, particularly in the sediments. And just working to further enhance our understanding of the geology and the implications of the newly interpreted structural controls. So I think this year's program, which is already well underway, will really be the last bit of drilling we do before we update the bottle to a feasibility level, and we'll proceed on that presumably in the second half of the year.

Great. Thank you. And the second question via e-mail is with respect to the feasibility study. Can you comment on what changes you expect from the updated feasibility study and some of the trade-off studies that you're also looking?

Sure. The current feasibility study for the Donlin project was prepared by Barrick, and it's actually almost 10 years old. And that study always envisioned Donlin as a large scale, capital-intensive operation. Since then, we've been focusing our energies on, first off, obviously, the geology, but also what really makes sense, can we build this project in stages? Should we bring in third-party participation for the natural gas pipeline. We're reviewing all aspects of the project with Barrick. And I think we will be completing those reviews in the coming months, and that will give us a foundation on what project we want to take forward with the new feasibility study, both in terms of geology, scale of operation, what would it look like in stages and so on. So that will be -- it will take us about a year to complete the updated study and position the owners to make their construction decision.

Excellent. The final question via e-mail for today's meeting is with respect to Barrick's current thinking on the project from a technical perspective. Could you comment, first Dr. Kaplan, on your view of what they might see changing on a technical perspective? And has the geology changed? And are you looking at a different ethical approach [ Technical Difficulty ] therein viewing this for?

You're asking me to field this one?

Yes. On Barrick's view of Donlin Gold and on the other clinical perspective on the project.

Okay. Well, I'm not going to answer about the technical perspective because as Dirty Harry once said, a man has to know his limitations. I would say this, the relationship that we have with Barrick has never been better. And the truth is that I think that for all of the reasons that we have highlighted the attributes of Donlin, it's pretty clear from their own commentary without me putting words into Mark's mouth or anyone else. Mark and I are great friends. It's pretty clear that the understand -- that Donlin represents something which is really a unique opportunity, is taking place before our eyes. We don't like to get ahead of Barrick when we talk about what they think. And Mark has his way of doing things. Randgold had its way of doing things. I think that the NovaGold shareholders are beneficiaries of being able to have a partner with the proven discipline and expert in taking assets like this of the value chain. Barrick has been referencing more and more about Donlin's progress up the value chain. And I really can't add anything to that. The drill results spoke volumes. I think that it's very clear that within Barrick's own portfolio, which were amongst the best that the company produced. And the good news about that is that those were amongst the best that the gold industry produced. That's good for Barrick. And that's good for us, obviously. So I would say this, everything is pointing in the right direction with regard to Donlin. Clearly, it has Barrick's attention. They're doing things in their own way. We're seeing the fruits of their methodical approach to getting their A team onto the geometry of the deposit. And the purpose of that is really very simple. The purpose of that work is to be able to then superimpose a mining plan on top of it, to be able then to confirm what I think we all expect in terms of the production profile. And then you've got your feasibility study and your economics. And really, it's steady as she goes. When Greg and I came on board in 2011, this is our 10th anniversary. And we laid out where we were going to take NovaGold. And to my delight, Greg and the management team that he's assembled have done a brilliant job of doing it. And I think I recognize, first of all, there's an enormous amount of Barrick DNA in NovaGold. My joke with Mark is that the difference between Barrick and NovaGold is that we have more Barrick DNA than they do. When you look at the background of Greg Lang and Richard Williams, of course, who built the vehicle before leaving Barrick. And I remember he was asked first when Victor was a pulse and he said, why did you leave and joined NovaGold? He said because I want to build the biggest and best gold mine in the world and that's going to be Donlin. Have someone like Greg Lang, who was 30 years with Barrick with predecessor companies and 8 years running Barrick North America, where he was producing more gold than Goldcorp. And of course, took Cortez into production, amongst other things. And that vehicle was built on his overall watch. You really got to see that it's perfectly normal for Barrick to look at NovaGold as being genetically as close to them as possible. So when you see the focus that the Randgold people have and that they've brought into the story with the existing Barrick people that [indiscernible] before the Barrick-Randgold merger. You really do see a system where from myself, from Greg and Catherine Raw, his counterpart in Barrick North America, all the way through to the project development teams and the geologists. We're all working hand in glove to arrive at a joyful outcome. And the drill results are pro logged, and we have a lot to look forward to.

NovaGold Resources Inc. annual session meeting of shareholders has now come to an end. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Thank you.

Thank you.