New Found Gold (TSX:NFGC) - Producing Now, Pine Cove the Critical Path

Keith Boyle (0:00)

Hi, I'm Keith Boyle. I'm the CEO of New Found Gold.

We're the newest Canadian gold producer on the island of Newfoundland, in Newfoundland, Labrador. And we are developing the Queensway Project, which is our second mine that we'll be putting into production. And we've got a prolific property package that has lots of exploration potential. So we're generating cashflow and looking for more.

SPEAKER_2 (0:27)

Keith, good to have you here. Welcome.

Keith Boyle (0:29)

Hi, Matt.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

Beaver Creek.

Keith Boyle (0:31)

Beaver Creek.

SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

Busy Beaver Creek. Now, it's a great conference country, lots of investors, different types of investors. I know you're wall to wall here, but I suspect your opening statement of we're the newest producer of Gold in Canada, that changes the conversation and the tone somewhat, I imagine.

Keith Boyle (0:50)

It sure does. In fact, to the point it actually surprised me. Yesterday was the first day, it surprised me that how people now are hearing what we want to, like what we've been saying, but now they're hearing it because you know what? We delivered on something big and that was commercial production at Hammerdown. We said, yep, we're in commercial production, 20 to 25,000 ounces a year, $2,500 all in sustaining. We've been saying that from the beginning.

We're doing it now and oh, we're generating cash flow. We're going to generate annualized $40 million. So that really takes people and makes them sit up and now they're interested. Okay, what's next?

SPEAKER_2 (1:33)

That's fun. That's a lot of fun. Like I said, we've had to change the tone of the conversations and the pressure points as well. Obviously, lots of people talk about getting production, very few do. So now that you've done it, you've shown your ability to do it. So the kind of building that you assembled, you knew you could do it. You said you were going to do it.

And you've done it.

Keith Boyle (1:53)

And delivered on time, on budget.

SPEAKER_2 (1:55)

On time, on budget. So what does that do in terms of conversations talking about the future? Because people are going to be talking about Queensway straight away, aren't they?

Keith Boyle (2:02)

Of course.

SPEAKER_2 (2:03)

You've done the production, but what?

Keith Boyle (2:04)

That's the flag.

That's the big one. So right away, it's, okay, well, what about Queensway? Well, look, Queensway, we're still, one, the process for Queensway is we've got to get our Environmental Assessment Certificate. That'll be early in the new year based on the timing that we answer the Environmental Preview Report that the government has asked us to provide. Nothing big, pretty standard stuff. And the development of Queensway is only about a six month. I mean, it's at surface, it's high grade, right at surface, exposed. So there's not a lot of development there. The real critical path to our project is what we have to do at the Pine Cove Mill. So we bought that as part of the Maritime Transaction last year. And so what we are doing now is first, we're retooling the mill. So going from floatation, Merrill-Crowe to Gravity-CIL.

That's the first step. And so that we get an extra bump in recovery from Hammerdown. So that it will improve the Hammerdown economics.

And then once we get our permit for Queensway, then we'll modify our permit at the mill to then expand it, double the size so that it can accept that extra 700 tonnes a day from Queensway. And that's targeted for Q4 of next year.

SPEAKER_2 (3:34)

Okay. And let's talk about sequencing, because now you will be producing cash at a very reasonable rate. Oh, we are producing cash. We are producing cash. And it's how you use that and deploy that was the best use. Because this company has come from and been born out of a hugely successful exploration program. That was the profile. You've come in as a build team, we're going to get into production, commercial production, we've done it. In terms of Queensway, I understand the process and the progress that you've made there.

Expiration is also still on people's lips. They want to know what are you going to do about that? Where are you going to do that?

Keith Boyle (4:14)

So, with exploration, all development companies sort of go through this reflection, I would say, about how much we should we do, what should we continue to do, excuse me. And so, when we look at it, we say that, look, we're going to have this project at Queensway. What's next in terms of what are we going to find? Well, when you look at phase one, that production basically takes us to 2031