Novagold Resources Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the NOVA Gold 2022 Year-End Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. Should you need assistance, please press star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ariel. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased that you have joined us for the 2022 year on financial results and also for an update on the Donlon Gold Project. On today's call, we have Dr. Thomas Kaplan, Novogold's chairman, Greg Lang, Novogold's president and CEO, and David Autiwell, Novogold's vice president and CFO. At the end of the webcast, we will take questions by phone. Additionally, we will respond to questions received by email. I would like to remind our webcast and call participants that as stated on slide three, Any statements made today may contain forward-looking information, such as projections and goals, which are likely to involve risk detailed in our various EDGAR and CEEDAR filings and forward-looking disclaimers included in this presentation. I now have the pleasure of turning the presentation over to our President and CEO, Greg Lang. Greg?

Thank you, Melanie. And good morning to everyone joining today's conference call and webcast. On slide four, we have included a drill hole map for the 22 program that shows the ACMA and Lewis areas, the three areas where we did tight spaced grid drilling, and the top five intervals from the latest results we jointly released with BEREC a week ago. The 2022 program was completed under budget and head of schedule in September, with 141 holes drilled for a total of over 42,000 meters, making it the largest drill program at Donlin in over 15 years. During the field season, 150 employees worked at the Donlin site, representing 24 of the villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Keeping our workforce healthy and safe has always been a top priority for Nova Gold and Donlon Gold. The safety protocols and the meetings at the project site played a central role in ensuring the continued success of Donlon and its drill program. We are immensely proud that Donlon Gold achieved zero lost time incidents again in 2022. This is a remarkable achievement that we do not take for granted as we continue to work and improve practices to the insurance of the health and safety of our people. The key focus areas for the drill program, such as the tight space drilling and the deposit, confirmed recent geologic modeling concepts at the wider space drill intervals in the immediate areas around the grid. It also identified short-scale controls that will be incorporated into an update to refine the geologic domains used for resource estimation, which will then be utilized for the strategic mine planning work. The addition of 14 geotechnical drill holes also provided information to advance the application for the Alaska Dam Safety Certifications. You know, we could not be happier with the outcome of the 2022 program. The assay labs returned some of the best intercepts since the project's inception and among the best open pit gold intercepts industry-wide. Just to highlight how encouraging the results were, the table on slide five includes the top 20 intervals from the program. For example, drill hole 2268 in the divide grid encountered over 40 meters at about one ounce per ton and a subinterval at 23 meters of almost two ounces per ton. Excellent results. What's particularly intriguing about the results in the divide grid is the tighter we drill this, the more we expose ourselves to encountering these high-grade structures. Three or four of the top holes from this program were in the divide grid and encountered an unexpected high-grade structure that we'll be following up on. With this highly successful drill program behind us, and once we have completed the updated resource model and trade-off studies, The owners look forward to supporting the project team and its partners, Jalista and TKC, in positioning the project for the next steps and taking it up the value chain with an updated feasibility study. Developing one of the world's largest gold mines represents a substantial undertaking that requires the necessary time and energy to ensure a diligent, thorough, transparent, and inclusive process for all of our stakeholders in the region. But from my experiences with multiple Tier 1 assets, when I was president of Barrick North America for many years, I realized how spectacular the Donlon Gold project really is. I believe that the intensive work that we're doing on the front end, the better will be the long-term outcome. Richard Williams, our vice president of engineering development, shares that philosophy. He brought the Pueblo Viejo mine into production for Barrick, and he too joined Nova Gold to align himself with the best in class for the gold industry's future. Turning to slide six. Chalista and Donalyn Gold continued their bipartisan outreach in Alaska with the administration and Congress in Washington, D.C. to highlight the thoroughness of the project's environmental review and permitting processes. In addition to the considerable benefits that this project will deliver to all Native Alaskans. Alaska's U.S. Senators Murkowski, pictured with our external manager of affairs, Christina Woolston, and Dan Sullivan, as well as Governor Michael Dunleavy, have long been supporters of the Donilon Gold Project. We also recognize the historic re-election to the House of Representatives of Mary Peltola for a full term as the first Alaska native. to join Congress and look forward to our continued outreach to her regarding Donlon Gold in the coming year. Donlon Gold is a federally permitted project located on private Alaska Native Corporation land designated by law for mining activities as part of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. This is a differentiating factor from many other mining projects in Alaska. Permitting in Alaska has represented a substantial undertaking and a tremendous achievement to ensure a diligent process for everyone involved. Slide seven lists all the federal and state permits and certificates received to date. Ongoing Donlan Gold Permit activities are included on slide eight. In September, 13 tribes joined Earthjustice requesting that the Corps of Engineers do a supplemental EIS and revoke the permit. Responses have been submitted by Donlan and Chalistas stating why none of these actions are appropriate. There's very little precedence for 404BTAs and the EPA always defers to the Corps' regular permitting process. The agencies have been very receptive in dialogue and welcome the responses that we have provided. We continue to support Alaska in its efforts on the state's Clean Water Act 401 certification. The Commissioner granted the request for an adjudicatory hearing related to potential water temperature impacts in Crooked Creek. The briefing process is underway and should be completed in the next six months. The right-of-way lease for portions of the natural gas pipeline on state land was separately appealed in Alaska Superior Court by two parties. Legal briefings are being prepared by the parties, and we anticipate a decision this year. The state of Alaska's issuance of water rights for the mine and facilities was also appealed. The administrative record with the court and all parties are preparing their initial briefs. A decision is expected also this year. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources finalized the relocation plan for public easements in the mine and transportation facilities. It should be noted that all appeals and challenges to Dodongo permits to date have been unsuccessful. unsuccessful, often multiple times, and we have confidence in the process. Nevertheless, as with all mining projects in the developed world, we are always prepared and organized for challenges. The project leadership and litigation teams are intimately familiar with the permits and the procedures that need to be followed. Donlon Gold, alongside The steadfast advocacy of JALISTA and TKC continue to support the state in defense of what constitutes an exceptionally thorough permitting process. One of the key areas which we spend a considerable amount of time and energy at the Donilon Project is participating, funding, and supporting the local communities in initiatives associated with health and safety, environmental management, and training and education. For example, as shown on slide nine, Donland Gold has conducted many fishery studies, reclamation work, and other environmental activities. The project team has also supported various search and rescue teams in the region, fostered education by supporting the local school districts and youth activities. This has represented a fundamental undertaking by Donlon over the years for the benefit of all stakeholders. From a community engagement standpoint, Crooked Creek, the closest community to the project site, recently formally expressed their support for the Donlon Gold project. And four additional shared value statements were also signed in the region in the last few months, bringing the total to over 12 with five new community relations positions filled by regional Donlon Gold employees. With that, I will now turn the call over to David Attawell to review the year-end financial results. Dave?