May 29, 2020 - Vancouver, British Columbia – NOVAGOLD RESOURCES INC. (“NOVAGOLD” or “the Company”) (NYSE American, TSX: NG) responds to a misleading report issued on May 28, 2020 by the Beijing-based short seller J Capital Research. The Company is currently reviewing the report in detail and will provide a more fulsome response to the numerous inaccuracies and falsehoods contained in the report.
“Under normal circumstances, a sloppy and truly meretricious report from a firm about which we know nothing would not be met by a corporate response,” said Dr. Thomas Kaplan, Chairman of the Board. “This is especially so as the firm that released it has not reached out to us to fact check their contentions. It is an odd data point indeed that J Capital Research at no time sought to engage with NOVAGOLD or its partners to clarify the false assumptions it used regarding the Donlin Gold project economics.
Nonetheless, as NOVAGOLD’s management is firmly committed to transparency, and has always welcomed every enquiry from investors and analysts with diligence, we feel it is wise to let our shareholders know that a proper response to the report shall be forthcoming. Despite the report’s clearly disingenuous intent to manipulate and not educate, we intend to deal with issues raised in this report with the same degree of alacrity as we would any well-meaning enquiry.
Shorting a cash-rich company with an exceptional asset and intelligent long-term investor base is an iffy proposition at the best of times unless it is for a quick trade. As gold rises and sophisticated investors seek “extraordinary leverage to gold in a place that they can keep it”, it is likely to prove to be an unrewarding exercise to short a Company with an asset that is unique in terms of its excellent combination of size, grade, production profile, exploration potential, mine life, pro forma operating costs and, of course, jurisdictional safety.
NOVAGOLD has kept its promises over the eight years since Greg Lang and I assumed leadership and positioned the Company to be one of the premier vehicles for gold investors in our space. We believe that our shareholders are far too well-informed and knowledgeable about our Donlin Gold project, our integrity, and competence to take this report seriously.”

1 Donlin Gold data as per the Second Updated Feasibility Study (as defined herein). Donlin Gold measured resources of approximately 8 Mt grading 2.52 g/t and indicated resources of approximately 534 Mt grading 2.24 g/t, each on a 100% basis and inclusive of mineral reserves. Mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with NI 43-101.