New Found Gold Expands Queensway Drill Programme to Six Rigs with Broader Discovery Focus

• New Found Gold has expanded its 2026 Queensway Gold Project drill programme from four to six diamond drill rigs, targeting 90,000 total metres, with the two additional rigs mobilised in mid-June 2026.
• The programme carries a fully funded budget of C$44 million, with 32,000 metres completed as of June 2026.
• 45% of the programme, or 40,000 metres, is designated the "Discovery & Growth" category, directed toward new discoveries and expansion of the initial mineral resource estimate.
• Exploration drilling spans three tiers: Appleton Fault Zone (AFZ) Core depth extensions, currently drilled mainly with 250 metres of surface but hit to below 1,000 metres depth, the Dropkick zone 11 km from the core, and regional geochemical anomaly targets located up to 65 km away.
• The project holds a mineral resource of 1.392 million indicated ounces and 608,000 inferred ounces, with a Phase 1 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in July 2025.

Programme Expansion & Allocation

New Found Gold (TSXV: NFG | NYSE American: NFGC) commenced the 2026 Queensway programme in January 2026 with four diamond drill rigs. Two additional rigs are being mobilised for a mid-June 2026 expansion, bringing the active rig count to six. As of June 2026, 32,000 metres had been completed toward the 90,000-metre total.

The expanded programme is structured around two categories of activity. The "Project Focus" category accounts for 55% of planned metres, covering resource conversion of inferred to indicated material in Phase 2 open pits and Phase 3 underground areas, alongside grade control, geotechnical, and hydrogeological drilling. The "Discovery & Growth" category accounts for the remaining 45%, allocating 40,000 metres to new discoveries and expanding the initial mineral resource estimate.

Strategic Rationale & Sequencing

The first half of 2026 focused on development drilling to advance the project toward a late-2027 target to process first ore at Queensway. With that development drilling now underway, the company has directed additional resources toward regional step-out drilling and depth extensions, with the broadened programme focused on finding the next deposit on the property.

In 2025, the Queensway programme completed 74,377 metres across 614 diamond drill holes, with approximately 75% of that activity directed at the Appleton Fault Zone (AFZ) Core in support of the Phase 1 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) mine plan and the remaining 25% allocated to exploration targets, including the Dropkick zone. The 2026 programme's 45% Discovery & Growth allocation reflects a material shift from that ratio. A parallel surface exploration programme is underway, encompassing regional-scale prospecting, soil sampling, geological mapping, ground-based geophysics, and trenching.

Exploration Targets

The 40,000-metre Discovery & Growth allocation spans three tiers of targets: deep extensions below the relatively shallow AFZ Core, the Dropkick zone in the AFZ Peripheral, and regional targets defined by geochemical anomalies located up to 65 km from the AFZ Core. Deep drilling has confirmed that the AFZ Core system remains open below the current resource to depths greater than 1,000 metres. The 2026 programme targets extensions to the Golden Dome and Dome zones, as well as the mineralised corridor below and between the Keats, Iceberg, and Keats West zones.

The Dropkick zone is located 11 km from the AFZ Core and remains open along strike and to depth. In 2025, drilling expanded the zone's footprint from surface to 300 metres vertical depth and 1.4 km along strike, establishing a highly continuous, high-grade domain west of the Appleton Fault Zone. The 2026 programme tests strike extensions immediately north, south, and east of Dropkick and explores new targets northward along the AFZ.

Regional targets defined by gold-in-soil, gold-in-till, and bedrock geochemical anomalies complete the discovery programme. Pauls Pond, located approximately 65 km south of the AFZ Core in Queensway South, Greenwood, and Gazeebow South are designated for trenching and drilling, while Dog Bay Line North (Duder Lake) is designated for surface exploration and trenching. Greenwood, south of Pauls Pond, features a 4.7 km by 2.0 km mineralised footprint, with past trenching exposing gold in bedrock and previous drill programmes returning visible gold in 32 holes. Gazeebow South, 7 km north of Dropkick in Queensway North, covers a 2.4 km by 0.8 km gold-in-till anomaly on the eastern side of the AFZ and is prioritised for trenching.

Queensway Project Context

The Queensway Gold Project is located in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, along the Trans-Canada Highway approximately 15 km west of Gander. New Found Gold holds a 100% interest in the project, which covers 220,000 hectares across more than 110 km of strike extent. Gold mineralisation across the property is controlled by two major structural fault zones: the Appleton Fault Zone and the JBP Fault Zone.

Resource & Economic Context

The expanded 2026 programme is advancing a project with a current mineral resource estimate of 18.038 million tonnes at 2.40 grams per tonne gold for 1.392 million indicated ounces, and 10.709 million tonnes at 1.77 grams per tonne gold for 608,000 inferred ounces. A Phase 1 PEA was completed in July 2025. The programme's C$44 million budget is fully funded.

With two rigs mobilised in mid-June 2026, New Found Gold's Queensway programme will operate at its full six-rig configuration across both the Project Focus and Discovery & Growth drilling categories for the remainder of the year.

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