President's Message 2009 was a year of reflection, review and refocus. Through numerous strategy meetings, NovaGold's senior team evaluated the Company's progress over the last 11 years, identifying our strengths and areas where we need to improve. The result is a focused strategy to systematically advance our portfolio of world-class projects through permitting and construction and into production. The "back to basics” theme of this year's corporate report reflects a desire to refocus on our strengths: identifying promising, high-quality projects, expanding deposits through exploration success and forging strong partnerships. I believe we have excelled in our ability to identify promising projects and make timely, strategic acquisitions. Our exploration team is arguably one of the best in the business. We have increased our resource base from 500,000 ounces of gold in 1998 to more than 17 million ounces of gold reserves today. In addition, the Company has 14 million ounces of gold resource in other categories, plus 150 million ounces of silver and 9 billion pounds of copper. Our focus on strategic acquisitions and our exploration success has served our shareholders well. As a junior mining company, we recognize the need for partnerships and collaboration to achieve our goal of becoming a mid-tier producer. We have forged strong relationships with excellent business partners, creating a 50/50 partnership with Barrick Gold at Donlin Creek and a 50/50 partnership with Teck Resources at Galore Creek. By working together from the management committees right down to the technical level, each partner brings a different set of skills to the project, with the senior partners offering extensive construction and operations expertise and NovaGold bringing its exploration and community engagement experience to the partnerships. We continue to enjoy strong, positive relationships with the First Nations and Alaskan Native groups at all of our projects. We take great pride in our commitment to responsible mining and work hard to bring tangible, long-lasting benefits to all of our community partners. NovaGold will continue to nurture these relationships to ensure local communities benefit financially and socially as our projects advance toward permitting and construction. The decision to initiate a sustainability reporting process reflects our desire to achieve best-in-class performance in all aspects of our business. The sustainability report summarizes our sustainability commitments and performance and should allow for enhanced dialogue with our community partners and shareholders. Our sustainability responsibilities and commitment to bring value to local communities and shareholders at each stage of project development is described in more detail on pages 16 and 17 of this report. Advancing our Projects We continue to believe that advancing our assets toward production will bring the greatest return to NovaGold shareholders. NovaGold's share of production from Donlin Creek alone would make the Company one of the largest mid-cap gold producers. With the additional gold and copper production potential from our Galore Creek project and the exploration potential at our Ambler copper-zinc-gold-silver project, we offer superior leverage to the gold and copper markets, as illustrated on pages 14 and 15 of this report. Our 50%-owned Donlin Creek gold project is advancing toward permitting and we have identified the potential to further enhance profitability. While the 2009 feasibility study showed a project with very respectable operating costs, preliminary optimization studies now show the potential to reduce power costs, which make up 25% of projected operating costs, by using natural gas as the primary power source. We will work with Barrick to complete the gasline studies and then revise the project feasibility study, with the objective of filing permit applications by the end of 2011. A pre-feasibility study is underway for our 50%-owned Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project. We have identified a preferred project design that we believe meets our objectives of expanding throughput, relocating the project facilities to allow for easier construction and future expansion, and reducing the risks associated with construction and operations. We will have new capital cost estimates as well as permitting, construction and production timelines when the pre-feasibility study is completed in the first half of 2011. Completion of the pre-feasibility study is also expected to add additional gold, silver and copper reserves to our portfolio. At our Rock Creek gold project we have made significant improvements to managing water at the mine site and believe we will meet all of our permit requirements for 2010. We are reviewing Rock Creek with a team of engineers and industry experts to determine the best way to build shareholder value with this project. At Ambler we are evaluating new exploration targets and initiating the engineering and environmental studies required to complete a pre-feasibility study. We believe this promising high-grade copper-zinc-gold-silver project has the potential to be another world-class discovery. Looking Ahead NovaGold was one of the top performing gold and copper equities in 2009, significantly outperforming the gold price and gold indices over calendar 2009 and in the first quarter of 2010. NovaGold has a reserve/resource base comparable to many of the world's most prominent producers, a portfolio of projects in low-risk mining-friendly jurisdictions, and experienced senior operating partners. With our demonstrated track record of consistent increases to our reserve/resource base and the substantial advancement of our properties, I believe the market will continue to recognize the long-term potential and underlying value of our Company. The US$175 million financing that we completed in March 2010 further underscored the value of our projects. Two of the most respected investors in the gold sector, Paulson and Soros, took significant positions in the Company, a vote of confidence that was well received by the market. With the completion of these investments we are well financed for the next two to three years. Through the execution of our business strategy and the careful stewardship and development of our projects, NovaGold is committed to adding both near-term and long-term value for our shareholders. Finally, I would like to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support. Our employees, management team and Board of Directors remain committed to NovaGold and our shareholders. Their dedication, hard work and expertise have led to NovaGold's success as an industry-leading growth company. Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse President and CEO

NovaGold will leverage its strengths - growth, adding value and building partnerships - to advance its projects and execute its business plan of becoming a mid-tier gold producer.