New Found Gold's Pine Cove Conversion Sets Queensway's Processing Route

• New Found Gold has received the permit amendment to convert its Pine Cove mill to a gravity-carbon-in-leach circuit.
• The company plans to double the mill from 700 to 1,400 tonnes per day and will apply separately for the expansion permit.
• The conversion is expected to lift the recovery of Hammerdown feed from the 87% study design toward approximately 92%.
• Gravity-carbon-in-leach is the circuit New Found Gold has selected to process the high-grade coarse gold from Queensway Phase 1.
• One expanded Pine Cove mill is set to process feed from both Hammerdown and Queensway Phase 1, avoiding a third-party toll mill.  

What Has Happened

New Found Gold (TSX: NFG | NYSE American: NFGC) has received the permit amendment to convert its Pine Cove mill in Newfoundland and Labrador to a gravity-carbon-in-leach circuit, and it plans to double the facility's capacity. Set out in the company's July 6, 2026 development update, the change turns a wholly owned mill into the shared processing route for both its Hammerdown deposit and the larger Queensway Phase 1 project. It fixes how New Found Gold intends to turn ore from two deposits into gold.

From Flotation to Gravity-Carbon-in-Leach

The conversion changes both the circuit type and its size. Pine Cove currently runs a 700-tonne-per-day flotation-leach-Merrill-Crowe circuit, and New Found Gold plans to convert and expand it to a 1,400-tonne-per-day gravity-carbon-in-leach circuit. The permit amendment to convert the circuit has been received, while the permit to expand throughput to 1,400 tonnes per day will be applied for separately.

Based on recent test work, the conversion is expected to increase recovery of Hammerdown deposit feed from the study design criterion of 87% toward approximately 92%. Gravity-carbon-in-leach is also the circuit New Found Gold has identified as preferred for processing the high-grade coarse gold that Queensway Phase 1 will deliver.

The circuit change does two things at once: it increases the gold captured from the current Hammerdown feed and matches the plant to the material Queensway will send.

One Mill for Two Deposits 

The reason the conversion reaches beyond Hammerdown is the plant's role as a shared facility. New Found Gold owns Pine Cove outright and selected it for Queensway Phase 1 offsite milling in a January 26, 2026 announcement. By processing material from both Hammerdown and Queensway Phase 1 at one converted and expanded plant, the company draws on a single higher-throughput facility and its own skilled mill operators rather than paying for a third-party toll mill.

Queensway Phase 1 is designed to feed that plant, producing roughly 700 tonnes per day of pre-concentrated product that will be transported to Pine Cove on the Baie Verte Peninsula for final processing.

Engineering the Conversion

The conversion is being engineered alongside the rest of the Phase 1 build. Engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) work began in the first quarter of 2026, and detailed engineering, early works and geotechnical drilling at Pine Cove started in the same quarter. New Found Gold is working toward completing the mill conversion and expansion by the fourth quarter of 2027.

Phase 1 mining will start with a contract miner under the company's technical oversight, applying the ramp-up experience the operations team is building at Hammerdown.

Chief Executive Officer of New Found Gold, Keith Boyle, is specific about the sequence:

"With the mill conversion permit amendment for Pine Cove received and EPCM work progressing, we expect to send first Queensway Phase 1 material to the mill as planned in Q4 2027."

What to Watch Next

The next processing milestone is the expansion permit application, which follows the conversion permit already in hand. The recovery uplift toward approximately 92% will be tested as converted-circuit operation begins. First Queensway Phase 1 material is targeted for the Pine Cove mill in the fourth quarter of 2027, ahead of Phase 1 commercial production in the second half of 2028.