Mr. Keith Boyle reports

NEW FOUND GOLD EXPANDS QUEENSWAY WORK PROGRAM: FOCUS ON DISCOVERY AND RESOURCE GROWTH

New Found Gold Corp. has expanded a fully financed $44-million work program on its 100-per-cent-owned Queensway gold project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Melissa Render, president of New Found Gold, stated: "We are excited to announce the expanded scope of the program at Queensway outlining a larger exploration program with an increased focus on discovery and resource growth. Two additional drill rigs are being mobilized to add to the four rigs active since January, marking the start of several targeted exploration drill campaigns.

"At the AFZ core, previous deep drilling has confirmed the system is open below the current mineral resource to more than 1,000 metres. The program will build on this success with the objective of further expanding the deposit at depth. In addition, we are looking forward to returning to the Dropkick zone, where aggressive stepout drilling will test strike extensions and explore this zone where it is open east of the Appleton Fault zone. Concurrently, our regional exploration team is looking to find the next deposit with the launch of an expansive trenching and drill campaign across multiple highly prospective targets throughout our extensive land package at Queensway. Since commencing in January, the program has primarily focused on project-related drilling within the AFZ core to support our development objectives as we advance Queensway toward first ore processed in late 2027 and now, we're focusing on discovery and resource growth," continued Ms. Render.

Program overview

The program will include 90,000 metres of diamond drilling, along with surface exploration in key areas across the company's 100-per-cent-owned 220,000-hectare project. As announced in the Jan. 21, 2026, New Found Gold press release, the program commenced in January with four drills focused on resource conversion drilling at AFZ core. In mid-June, the program will expand to a total of six drills, with the 90,000 m of planned 2026 drilling allocated as follows:

• 45-per-cent discovery and growth focus: Targeting expansion of the initial mineral resource estimate (MRE) and new discoveries, including:
  • AFZ core: Building on high-grade intercepts at depth below the initial MRE, drilling will target potential extensions to the Golden Dome and Dome zones, as well as the mineralized corridor below and between the Keats, Iceberg and Keats West zones, with the objective of further delineating and expanding the mineralized system in the AFZ core.
  • AFZ peripheral: Continue testing extensions of the Dropkick zone, which is open along strike and to depth. Drilling in 2025 expanded this target from surface to a vertical depth of 300 metres (m) and for 1.4 kilometres (km) along strike, with a high-grade domain west of the Appleton Fault zone (AFZ) that demonstrates excellent continuity (see the New Found Gold new release dated April 22, 2026). Drilling at Dropkick east of the AFZ in 2025 returned encouraging results, highlighting the potential for new discoveries in this emerging target. Extensions immediately north, south and east of Dropkick will be tested, along with additional new targets northward along the AFZ.
  • Regional targets: Initial and follow-up exploration is planned at Pauls Pond, Greenwood, Gazeebow South and other newly identified prospects across the project. The Pauls Pond, Greenwood and Gazeebow South priority target areas, which are defined by large-scale gold-in-soil, gold-in-till and bedrock geochemical anomalies, represent compelling opportunities for additional discovery and highlight the potential scale of the mineralized systems being advanced on the project outside of the initial MRE. Collectively, these target areas are situated along the projected trend of the AFZ, reinforcing the significance of this regional-scale structural corridor as a key control on gold mineralization and supports the broader exploration potential across the project.
    • Pauls Pond: In Queensway South, approximately 65 kilometres south of the AFZ core, trenching and drilling is planned at Paul's Pond to expand upon the success of earlier campaigns and test recently generated targets within the broader mineralized corridor.
    • Greenwood: South of Pauls Pond, past trenching at Greenwood has exposed gold in bedrock in multiple locations and outlined a robust mineralized footprint that extends over a 4.7-kilometre-by-2.0-kilometre area. Across the Pauls Pond-Greenwood region, previous drill programs intersected visible gold in 32 diamond drill holes (see the New Found Gold press release dated May 25, 2023).
    • Gazeebow South: In Queensway North, seven km north of Dropkick and on strike along the AFZ, this prospect is characterized by an expansive gold-in-till anomaly that follows the interpreted eastern side of the AFZ. This prospect, with a 2.4 km by 0.8 km footprint, represents a high-priority target for follow-up trenching.
• 55-per-cent project focus:
  • Resource conversion: Conversion of inferred to indicated mineral resources in phase 2 open pits and phase 3 underground as outlined in the Queensway preliminary economic assessment (PEA).
  • Grade control: Leveraging results from the highly successful 2025 grade control program, drilling in the program will optimize drill hole spacing and broaden the scope to continue to increase confidence in the distribution of gold mineralization and support mine planning as outlined for the PEA phase 1 open pits.
  • Geotechnical and Hydrogeological drilling: Continued work to support mine planning.

The program will also include an extensive surface exploration program throughout several areas of both Queensway North and Queensway South. This work will include regional-scale prospecting, regional and prospect-scale soil sampling, geological mapping, ground-based geophysics, and an expansive trenching program to test geochemical targets across the Paul's Pond-Greenwood, Dog Bay Line North (Duder Lake) and Gazeebow South areas.

Looking ahead

To date a total of 32,000 metres of drilling has been completed in the 90,000 m program. This primarily focused on project-related drilling, mostly infill drilling of inferred resources, within the AFZ core to support the company's development objectives for Queensway.

The 2025 Queensway drill program included 74,377 m of drilling in 614 diamond DDH, with approximately 75 per cent of the drilling focused on the AFZ core area to support advancement of the phase 1 mine plan, as outlined in the company's PEA and 25 per cent focused on exploration targets such as Dropkick. To date, approximately 8 per cent of the results from 2025 drilling remain outstanding, as well as channel sampling results from the Lotto excavation. These results will be reported once available.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Melissa Render, PGeo, president and a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Ms. Render consents to the publication of this press release by New Found Gold. Ms. Render 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 Gold is an emerging Canadian gold producer with assets in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The company holds a 100-per-cent interest in Queensway and the Hammerdown gold project, which includes the Hammerdown deposit and fully permitted milling and tailings facilities. The company is currently focused on advancing its flagship Queensway to production and bringing the Hammerdown deposit into commercial production.

In July, 2025, the company completed a PEA at Queensway (see New Found Gold press release dated July 21, 2025). Recent drilling continues to yield new discoveries along strike and down dip of known gold zones, pointing to the district-scale potential that covers a 110-plus-kilometre strike extent along two prospective fault zones at Queensway.

Through 2025, New Found Gold built a new board of directors and management team and has a solid shareholder base which includes cornerstone investor Eric Sprott. The company is focused on growth and value creation.

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