Announcement • Jun 03
New Found Gold Corp Expands Queensway Work Program With Discovery And Resource Growth Focus
New Found Gold Corp. had announced the expansion of a fully funded $44 million work program on its 100%-owned Queensway Gold Project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The fully funded 2026 work program will include 90,000 m of drilling with six diamond drill rigs. The program scope will expand from the initial development-related drilling in the AFZ Core that began in January, to a broader program including 40,000 m of targeted exploration drilling, district-scale surface exploration, a resumption of the highly successful grade control drilling, and resource expansion below the AFZ Core. 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, the Dropkick Zone will be tested with aggressive step-out drilling to test strike extensions and explore this zone where it is open east of the Appleton Fault Zone. Concurrently, regional exploration will launch an expansive trenching and drill campaign across multiple highly prospective targets throughout the extensive land package at Queensway. Since commencing in January, the Program has primarily focused on project-related drilling within the AFZ Core to support development objectives as Queensway advances toward first ore processed in late 2027. The Program will include 90,000 metres of diamond drilling, along with surface exploration in key areas across the Company's 100% owned 220,000 hectare Project. 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% Discovery and Growth Focus: Targeting expansion of the initial mineral resource estimate and new discoveries, including AFZ Core: Building on high-grade intercepts at depth below the initial mineral resource estimate, 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 and for 1.4 kilometres along strike, with a high-grade domain west of the Appleton Fault Zone that demonstrates excellent continuity. Drilling at Dropkick east of the Appleton Fault Zone 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 Appleton Fault Zone. 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 mineral resource estimate. Collectively, these target areas are situated along the projected trend of the Appleton Fault Zone, 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 km 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 km x 2.0 km area. Across the Pauls Pond-Greenwood region, previous drill programs intersected visible gold in 32 diamond drill holes. Gazeebow South: In Queensway North, 7 km north of Dropkick and on strike along the Appleton Fault Zone, this prospect is characterized by an expansive gold-in-till anomaly that follows the interpreted eastern side of the Appleton Fault Zone. This prospect, with a 2.4 km x 0.8 km footprint, represents a high-priority target for follow-up trenching. 55% 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. 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 Preliminary Economic Assessment 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. To date a total of 32,000 m 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 drill holes, with approximately 75% of the drilling focused on the AFZ Core area to support advancement of the Phase 1 mine plan, as outlined in the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment, and 25% focused on exploration targets such as Dropkick. To date, approximately 8% 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.
