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  in the exploration potential at Donlin Gold. And in a bull market in gold, when you deliver exploration results that are positive, it’s a very, very wonderful thing. So, I’m looking forward to that and I believe that the next step will therefore be a review of
the feasibility study, which was last done nearly a decade ago. Sure, a lot has changed, not the least of which is the potential strategy itself of developing Donlin Gold in stages. Ultimately that will be determined jointly by the board of Donlin Gold, which is 50 percent Barrick, 50 percent NOVAGOLD.
One of the things that I really have to stress – because it’s one of our most attractive attributes – is that Donlin Gold, the joint venture, is a true 50/50, which means that no partner has one iota greater rights than the other. In practical terms, we’ve never had any dissonance between the shareholders, certainly not since the time that I’ve been involved in the story. We get along extremely well with Barrick and the relationship between the management teams of Barrick and NOVAGOLD has never been better. And Mark Bristow and I have a relationship that goes back over 20 years and has been marked by successes in African Platinum, where he was a director and I was the largest shareholder.
I was the largest shareholder of Moto Gold and was able to deliver that to him when he decided that he wanted the Kibali project in Congo, and we’ve enjoyed really great relations. But very importantly, what you also see is that we’re in sync on the work plan which has been laid out, something that is using very much Randgold kind of influences. In terms of news flow, we’re hopeful about the next drill program and we believe
that it should lead to a decision by Donlin Gold to proceed
with a review of the feasibility study. When we talk about the Donlin Gold joint venture, investors have to understand that the way that it was constructed was brilliant. It had nothing to do with me so I’m not claiming any credit for it, but before we came into the NOVAGOLD story, they had devised two 50/50 joint ventures on Donlin Gold Creek, as it was then called, and Galore Creek. These are genuine 50/50s, which is why when Newmont came into Galore Creek, they were able to join Teck Resources as a completely equal partner. In this business, unlike in hydrocarbons, for example, that extra 0.1 of a percent and operatorship makes a big difference. Because we don’t have any deficiency in that respect with regard to Barrick, should
one day NOVAGOLD be the object of a takeover attempt, one of the most attractive attributes for an acquirer is that when they enter into the story, they are not subordinate to the existing partner. It’s a true 50/50. They will both jointly be the operator. That is a huge selling point in this industry.
 Not that you’re for sale...
Not that we’re for sale, but our job is to ensure that under any eventuality we get the premium valuation for our asset. And if that means being the beneficiary of things that took place before we came onto the scene, great. I think everything that we have done on our watch has positioned the company so that we are in a position to take this project, with our partner Barrick, up the value chain; to be able to finance the project, our aim being with minimal equity dilution; and if someone else is going to pay shareholders for the future – in a way that
is accretive and attractive – our job is to maximize that value and hence to maximize the valuation. I think that everything that we’ve done – but most importantly, everything about the Donlin Gold asset – has given us the attributes that, whether we take this into production or someone else does, it’s going
to prove to be one of the industry’s really, really great and
epic successes.
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