Dr. Thomas Kaplan reports

NOVAGOLD ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW DIRECTOR

Novagold Resources Inc. has approved the appointment of Ali Erfan to serve on the board, effective immediately. Mr. Erfan's ascension will fill the vacancy left by the departure of director Diane Garrett.

"I am very pleased to welcome Ali Erfan to Novagold's board," said Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, Novagold's chairman. "Mr. Erfan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as a long-standing vice-chairman of The Electrum Group, investment adviser to Electrum Strategic Resources, which is the company's largest shareholder and a global leader in precious metals mining, with multibillion-dollar investments and operations in North America. I also wish to extend my deepest appreciation to Diane Garrett for her valued guidance and significant contributions to the company over her seven years of committed service."

Mr. Erfan has extensive capital market and industry experience as one of the key executives at Electrum, which he joined in 2007, and as a founding board member of Leor Energy, a privately held North American natural gas producer that went from a start-up in 2003 to being sold to Encana in 2007 for $2.6-billion. He later served on the board of Gatos Silver from an initial public offering through to its merger with First Majestic, and currently sits on the boards of Gabriel Resources Ltd. and Electrum's two privately held silver vehicles: Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining and Sinda.

Prior to joining Electrum, Mr. Erfan was a senior partner at 3i Group PLC's London headquarters, one of the world's most prominent listed private equity and venture capital investment companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Erfan was invested in several early-stage technology companies that achieved IPOs and merger-and-acquisition exits internationally. These included, among others, HTE (acquired by BASF), Insensys (acquired by Moog Inc.), Smart Fuel Cells (IPO Frankfurt) and CSR (IPO London, then acquired by Qualcomm). Mr. Erfan graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA and an MA in philosophy, politics and economics. He holds an MBA from the London Business School and is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 10.

About Novagold Resources Inc.

Novagold is a well-financed precious metal company focused on the development of the Donlin gold project in Alaska, one of the safest mining jurisdictions in the world. With approximately 39 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories, inclusive of proven and probable mineral reserves (541 million tonnes at an average grade of approximately 2.24 grams per tonne in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories on a 100-per-cent basis), the Donlin gold project is regarded to be one of the largest, highest-grade and most prospective known open-pit gold deposits in the world. According to the 2021 technical report and the S-K 1300 technical report summary, once in production, the Donlin gold project is expected to produce an average of more than one million ounces per year over a 27-year mine life on a 100-per-cent basis.

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