Ms. Melissa Render reports

NEW FOUND MAKES NEW DISCOVERY WITH 35 G/T AU OVER 17M INCLUDING 1,910 G/T AU OVER 0.3M AT "VEGAS ZONE"

New Found Gold Corp. has released the results from 97 diamond drill holes that were completed as part of a drill program designed to test targets generated by systematic grid drilling in proximity to the Monte Carlo zone, located 800 metres southwest of the K2 zone on the west side of the highly prospective Appleton fault zone (AFZ). New Found's 100-per-cent-owned Queensway project comprises a 1,662-square-kilometre area, accessible via the Trans-Canada Highway, 15 km west of Gander, Nfld.

Monte Carlo, Vegas and Powerline highlights:

• An interval of 35.2 grams per tonne gold over 16.85 metres in NFGC-23-1848 was intercepted midway between the Monte Carlo and the K2 zones on the west side of the AFZ at a new zone named Vegas. The intercept includes an elevated high-grade sample running 1,910 g/t Au over 0.30 m that exhibits significant visible gold over a three-centimetre length. Vegas was discovered through reconnaissance grid drilling and subsequent, follow-up drilling has identified a high-grade segment of this moderately northeast-dipping fault that appears to link between the Monte Carlo and K2 structures. Additional drilling is planned to expand on this newly identified, high-grade domain.
• Farther south at the Monte Carlo zone (initial discovery announced May 10, 2023), additional targeted drilling has intersected multiple high-grade gold intervals, including 25.8 g/t Au over two m in NFGC-22-1064, 10.6 g/t Au over 3.25 m in NFGC-23-1666 and 6.87 g/t Au over 7.25 m in NFGC-23-1673. These results successfully expand the near-surface, high-grade mineralization to cover a strike length of 185 m with a depth extent of 160 m. Monte Carlo is an east-west-striking, steeply dipping vein that remains open along strike and to depth.
• Reconnaissance grid drilling on the west side of the AFZ and 800 metres farther south of Monte Carlo encountered a broad, gold-mineralized, shallowly northeast-dipping shear zone, a new zone called Powerline, with characteristics similar to the neighbouring Keats West zone. Powerline was first intercepted by grid drilling that returned highlight intervals of 3.32 g/t Au over seven m and 1.85 m over 6.3 m in NFGC-23-1321. Targeted follow-up drilling intercepted 1.80 g/t Au over 10.55 m in NFGC-23-1884, found 50 m along strike of the initial discovery. Highly anomalous and low-grade mineralization has been defined over a current strike length of 350 m at Powerline, and testing has only occurred at shallow depths.

Melissa Render, vice-president of exploration, stated: "Our reconnaissance grid drilling campaign conducted on the west side of the AFZ has uncovered several new structures of interest and has added to our understanding of the gold-mineralized system. Structural orientations west of the AFZ do tend to be quite different than zones found on the east; however, the character of mineralization and its potential appear quite similar. Our list of targets in the west has now grown and will continue to be an area of focus in 2024."

Queensway 650,000 m drill program update

The company is currently undertaking a 650,000 m drill program at Queensway, and approximately 5,200 m of core are currently pending assay results.

Sampling, subsampling and laboratory

All drilling recovers HQ core. Drill core is split in half, using a diamond saw or a hydraulic splitter for rare intersections with incompetent core.

A geologist examines the drill core and marks out the intervals to be sampled and the cutting line. Sample lengths are mostly one metre and adjusted to respect lithological and/or mineralogical contacts and isolate narrow (less than one m) veins or other structures that may yield higher grades.

Technicians saw the core along the defined cutting line. One-half of the core is kept as a witness sample, and the other half is submitted for analysis. Individual sample bags are sealed, placed into totes and marked with the contents.

New Found has been submitting samples for gold determination by fire assay to ALS Canada Ltd. and by photon assay to MSALabs since June, 2022. ALS and MSA operate under a commercial contract with New Found.

Drill core samples are shipped to ALS for sample preparation in Sudbury, Ont., Thunder Bay, Ont., or Moncton, N.B. ALS is an ISO-17025-accredited laboratory for the fire assay method.

Drill core samples are also submitted to MSA in Val d'Or, Que. MSA operates numerous laboratories worldwide and maintains ISO-17025 accreditation for many metal determination methods. MSA is an ISO-17025-accredited laboratory for the photon assay method.

At ALS, the entire sample is crushed to approximately 70 per cent passing two millimetres. A 3,000 g split is pulverized. Routine samples do not have visible gold identified and are not within a mineralized zone. Routine samples are assayed for gold by 30 g fire assay with an inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP) finish. If the initial 30 g fire assay gold result is over one g/t, the remainder of the 3,000 g split is screened at 106 micrometres for screened metallic assay. For the screened metallic assay, the entire coarse fraction (sized greater than 106 micrometres) is fire assayed, and two splits of the fine fraction (sized fewer than 106 micrometres) are fire assayed. The three assays are combined on a weight-averaged basis. Samples that have visible gold identified or fall within a mineralized interval are automatically submitted for screened metallic assay for gold.

At MSA, the entire sample is crushed to approximately 70 per cent passing two millimetres. For "routine" samples that do not have visible gold identified and are not within a mineralized zone, the samples are riffle split to fill one 450 g jar for photon assay. If the jar assays greater than one g/t Au, the remaining crushed material is weighed into multiple jars and submitted for photon assay.

For samples that have visible gold identified or are within a mineralized zone, the entire crushed sample is weighed into multiple jars and submitted for photon assay. The assays from all jars are combined on a weight-averaged basis.

All samples prepared at ALS or MSA are also analyzed for a multielement ICP package (ALS method code ME-ICP61) at ALS Vancouver.

Drill program design, quality assurance/quality control and interpretation of results are performed by qualified persons employing a rigorous quality assurance/quality control program consistent with industry best practices. Standards and blanks account for a minimum of 10 per cent of the samples, in addition to each laboratory's internal quality assurance/quality control programs.

Quality control data are evaluated on receipt from the laboratories for failures. Appropriate action is taken if assay results for standards and blanks fall outside allowed tolerances. All results stated have passed New Found's quality control protocols.

New Found's quality control program also includes the submission of the second half of the core for approximately 2 per cent of the drilled intervals. In addition, approximately 1 per cent of sample pulps for mineralized samples are submitted for reanalysis to a second ISO-accredited laboratory for check assays.

The company does not recognize any factors of drilling, sampling or recovery that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the assay data disclosed.

The assay data disclosed in this news release have been verified by the company's qualified person against the original assay certificates.

The company notes that it has not completed any economic evaluations of its Queensway project and that the Queensway project does not have any resources or reserves.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Greg Matheson, PGeo, chief operating officer, a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Matheson consents to the publication of this press release dated Feb. 29, 2024, by New Found. Mr. Matheson certifies that this press release fairly and accurately represents the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this press release.

About New Found Gold Corp.

New Found holds a 100-per-cent interest in the Queensway project, located 15 kilometres west of Gander, Nfld., and just 18 km from Gander International Airport. The project is intersected by the Trans-Canada Highway and has logging roads crosscutting the project, high-voltage electric power lines running through the project area and easy access to a highly skilled work force. The company is currently undertaking a 650,000-metre drill program at Queensway and is well financed for this program with cash and marketable securities of approximately $53.5-million as of February, 2024.

We seek Safe Harbor.