Environment

NOVAGOLD’s Commitments to the Environment

NOVAGOLD places a significant emphasis on environmental management, considering it a top corporate priority. Our Board of Directors, employees, and the personnel of Donlin Gold LLC, are dedicated to minimizing and mitigating impacts to the environment for future generations while ensuring safe, responsible, and profitable operations for the benefit of employees, shareholders, and local communities. NOVAGOLD upholds and consistently monitors excellence in environmental performance across all office and project locations. Our comprehensive Environmental Policy outlines principles for all project stages, with a primary focus on the Donlin Gold project site in Alaska.

Specifically, NOVAGOLD’s environmental performance measurement centers around activities at the Donlin Gold project site, where detailed procedures guide environmental management across all operations, maintaining a robust environmental compliance track record. Stringent standards are adopted from the planning and environmental impact assessment process through drilling and other field work and environmental programs, and site rehabilitation, integrating the management of environmental, social, cultural, and economic aspects into strategic business planning and risk assessment processes. Recognizing stakeholders’ concerns about the environmental impact of Donlin Gold’s site activities, NOVAGOLD applies the precautionary principle to avoid or minimize potential impacts, and where not feasible, to mitigate and remediate our footprint. Effectively and responsibly managing the natural environment is fundamental to our success, and NOVAGOLD remains committed to implementing high environmental standards.

In 2022, Donlin Gold LLC implemented an Environmental Management System (EMS), integrating processes and tools to mitigate environmental impacts and ensure compliance with regulatory and permitting requirements. This initiative is led and overseen by NOVAGOLD’s VP of EHSS, who reports directly to NOVAGOLD’s President and CEO. In accordance with our permit obligations and the corporate policies of both NOVAGOLD and Donlin Gold LLC, the project site maintains a consistently high level of environmental performance. The environmental team conducts daily inspections of all ongoing activities at the site, diligently monitoring for potential releases to air, land, and water. These activities encompass various aspects such as water and wastewater management, air quality, hazardous and solid waste management, and fuel storage and usage (including associated spill risks), as well as the protection of biological resources in the vicinity of the site. However, as a non-producing mining company with limited operations, these effects are minimal. In addition, land disturbance is very limited at present, and impact footprints are small and fluctuate based on the amount of site activity planned for each season. Nevertheless, all relevant data is carefully managed through Donlin Gold’s EMS, which includes tracking and verifying the completion of any action items.