New Found Gold Sets New Standard for Community-Centered Mining in Newfoundland

• New Found Gold’s Queensway Gold Project is positioned to create generational change for central Newfoundland's economy, potentially establishing the region as a mining hub and spurring additional mineral discoveries
• ‍Over 60% of NewFound Gold's workforce lives within one hour of the work site, with over 92% from Newfoundland and Labrador, demonstrating strong community integration and local hiring practices.
• The company has implemented real-time water monitoring stations before regulatory requirements, becoming the first known exploration company in Newfoundland and Labrador to voluntarily install such systems.
• New Found Gold conducts regular town halls using postcards to reach all nearby households, addressing stakeholder concerns before permit submissions to streamline regulatory processes.
• The upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) represents a critical step toward defining a development project, allowing detailed stakeholder discussions about mining operations and tailings management.

New Found Gold (TSXV:NFG, NYSE:A: NFGC) represents an interesting case study in modern mining development, where environmental stewardship and community engagement form the foundation of operational strategy. Under the leadership of Vice President of Sustainability Jared Saunders, the company has positioned itself as a standard-bearer for responsible exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador. We look at the company's approach to stakeholder management, environmental compliance, and development planning as it transitions from exploration toward potential mining operations.

Leadership & Operational Philosophy

Jared Saunders brings significant mining sector experience to New Found Gold, having previously worked with Vale's Long Harbour processing plant and Voisey's Bay operations in Newfoundland and Labrador. His background in environmental consulting and contaminated site remediation provides crucial expertise as the company navigates increasingly complex regulatory and social license requirements. Saunders joined New Found Gold approximately two years ago, initially as Director of Environment and Regulatory Affairs before advancing to Vice President of Sustainability in February.

The company's operational philosophy centers on building and maintaining social license, which Saunders defines as "the ongoing approval of the company or project by stakeholders." This concept, while difficult to quantify through traditional metrics, represents a critical success factor for modern mining projects:

"It's important for a project to have a social license or a positive social license in order for it to move forward from exploration to development."

Community Integration & Local Hiring

New Found Gold's commitment to local hiring sets it apart from many resource companies operating in remote locations. The company's workforce composition demonstrates significant local integration, with over 60% of employees living within one hour's drive of the work site. This statistic extends to over 92% of the workforce originating from Newfoundland and Labrador, with mainly specialized skills requiring recruitment from other Canadian provinces.

This local hiring strategy serves multiple strategic purposes beyond operational efficiency. It demonstrates to stakeholders that New Found Gold operates as a community-based company rather than an external entity seeking short-term resource extraction.

"They know that we're trying to build in the community and we're trying to become significant members of the community or neighbors that help the area prosper."

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication Strategy

The company has developed a comprehensive stakeholder engagement program that extends beyond traditional regulatory requirements. New Found Gold conducts regular community town halls, utilizing physical postcards to reach every household within a 50-kilometer radius. This approach acknowledges the demographic reality of the region, where "a significant portion is older people so they're not always on Facebook or different types of social media."

The town hall format incorporates pre-submitted questions, allowing Saunders to address community concerns systematically:

"One of the first things I always do is say here are the questions that you have provided to us so that people know what the questions were and that also allows if that person is sitting in the audience to say okay yes they're listening to me." 

This approach has proven effective in building trust and demonstrating responsiveness to community input.

Beyond public meetings, New Found Gold engages in one-on-one consultations with key stakeholders, including Indigenous partners and regulatory bodies, before submitting permits. This proactive approach often results in permit modifications based on stakeholder feedback, streamlining the regulatory approval process.

Environmental Management & Monitoring

New Found Gold has implemented environmental monitoring systems that exceed current regulatory requirements. The company has partnered with the provincial government to install two real-time water monitoring stations, becoming the first known exploration company in Newfoundland and Labrador to voluntarily implement such systems. These stations monitor water quality downstream of company activities, with data collected directly by regulators and made publicly available through provincial databases in real-time.

The company's environmental focus reflects the sensitive nature of its operating environment, located near the Town of Appleton, close to Gander Lake (a protected water supply), and along the Gander River, renowned for salmon fishing.

"We have gone above and beyond on how we control water and things like sedimentation and all that stuff coming from our sites."

Site remediation practices include immediate restoration of completed drill sites, including seeding and tree planting. The company collaborates with local forestry experts to optimize revegetation techniques, ensuring that exploration areas show no signs of activity within years of completion.

Interview with Vice President of Sustainability, Jared Saunders

Regulatory & Permitting Strategy

New Found Gold has adopted a proactive approach to regulatory compliance, collecting environmental baseline data in advance of permit requirements. Since 2021, with increased intensity since 2023, the company has worked to close data gaps that could potentially delay development timelines.

"My goal is that we have already collected all the required environmental baseline data for all the upcoming permits so that we are not the bottleneck in the process." 

This forward-looking strategy addresses a common challenge in mining development, where missing baseline data can delay projects by years. The company has conducted comprehensive fish, bird and bat studies, noise and light impact assessments, historic resources assessments and environmental baseline data collection across its entire site area.

The PEA Milestone

The upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment represents a crucial inflection point for New Found Gold, marking the transition from exploration to defined development planning. For Saunders and his team, the PEA provides the first opportunity to present stakeholders with concrete development scenarios, including detailed discussions about ore processing and tailings storage:

"The PEA is a very big step for myself and my team. It really gives us the first time that we'll actually have a defined development project to talk about with stakeholders." 

This milestone enables more substantive community engagement and allows the company to identify potential concerns before advanced engineering and permitting phases.

Technology & Modern Mining Practices

New Found Gold emphasizes the evolution of mining practices, distinguishing current approaches from historical operations that created lasting environmental impacts. 

"Mining of 40, 50 years ago is not the way we mine today. Mines can actually come in, if they're done and designed properly, they can achieve the goal of extracting the resource with the minimal amount of impact and not leaving a long-term legacy issue behind."

The company's early-stage positioning allows for optimal decision-making regarding processing methods, tailings management, and overall facility design. This strategic advantage enables the incorporation of best practices and emerging technologies from the outset rather than retrofitting existing operations.

Regional Economic Impact & Future Outlook

New Found Gold's development potential extends beyond individual project economics to broader regional transformation. The company's operations could establish central Newfoundland as a mining hub, potentially attracting additional exploration and development activity.

"I believe the work that New Found Gold is doing is going to be a very positive contribution for Newfoundland and Labrador and even more so for central Newfoundland. I think it's actually going to be a generational change that will allow people from central Newfoundland to work in the mining industry for years to come."

Macro Thematic Analysis

The global mining industry faces unprecedented pressure to demonstrate environmental stewardship and community engagement as institutional investors increasingly prioritize ESG criteria. New Found Gold's approach reflects broader industry evolution toward sustainable resource development, where social license and environmental compliance drive long-term value creation rather than traditional extraction-focused models.

Newfoundland and Labrador's mining sector represents significant untapped potential, with the island portion having limited mining activity over the past three decades despite historical precedent. The province's stable jurisdiction, existing infrastructure, and supportive regulatory framework create favorable conditions for responsible development. New Found Gold's community-integrated approach addresses key stakeholder concerns while establishing operational practices that could define industry standards.

The company's emphasis on local hiring and community investment reflects growing recognition that resource projects must create lasting regional economic benefits beyond commodity extraction. This approach reduces operational risk while building sustainable competitive advantages through workforce stability and community support.