Good day, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the NovaGold second quarter 2013 conference call and webcast. My name is Crystal and I will be your operator for today. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator instructions). Now, I would like to turn your call over to your host today, Ms. Melanie Hennessey, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please proceed.

Thank you. Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us on today’s call. We have Greg Lang, NovaGold's President and CEO; and also David Ottewell, NovaGold's Vice President and CFO. Just a reminder that at the end of the formal part of the presentation, we will take questions, both by phone and by email. But before we get started, I would like to remind our listeners that any statements made today by the management team may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements include projections and goals which are likely to involve risks detailed in our various SEDAR filings and in various forward-looking disclaimers such as the one we see on Slide 3 and included in the second quarter financials release and in this presentation. With that, I have the great pleasure of introducing Greg, NovaGold's President and CEO.

Thank you, Melanie. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us this morning on our quarterly call and webcast. For those of you who are less familiar with NovaGold and who have joined us for the first time, the company has two great assets in North America as featured on slide 4. Our 50% owned flagship asset, Donlin Gold has commenced permitting and is poised to be one of the largest gold producers in the industry. Galore Creek is also a valuable asset and expected to be Canada’s largest and lowest cost copper mine. We are currently evaluating opportunities to sell all or a portion of our interest in Galore Creek to a private proceeds towards the development of Donlin Gold. In less than two years and well ahead of the recent market decline, we have positioned the company to benefit tremendously from what we anticipate will be a very bullish environment for gold in the coming years. During this time, as shown on Slide 5, we completed the reorganization and divestiture of non-core assets, streamlined our expenses, reduced debt and further strengthened the balance sheet. We also built a management team with expertise in developing and operating large scale projects. We further derisked Donlin Gold and Galore Creek as well as progressed our permitting and exploration activities as we had planned to. Notwithstanding our share price and the continuing challenging market for mining equities, we find ourselves in a great position as a company. In the second quarter, a number of key deliverables were achieved as shown on slide 6. The company completed the Donlin Gold public scoping component of the permitting process with positive and constructive reviews in all public meetings. The Donlin Gold environmental and social baseline comprehensive data was submitted to the Corps of Engineers…

Thank you, Greg. Turning to Slide 8, during the second quarter, spending at our projects progressed as plan. At Donlin, our share of cash funding was US$4.4 million in the second quarter and $6.9 million year to date, on track for a total of $15 million for the year to support permitting activities and preparation of the Preliminary Draft EIS by the US Army Corps of Engineers. At Galore Creek, our share of cash funding was CA$1.4 million for the quarter and $2.1 million year to date, on track for a total of $8 million for the year. Spending is expected to increase in the third quarter as we complete the drilling program to follow up on last year’s discovery of the Legacy zone. Slide 9 highlights our income statement items for the second quarter. Our operating loss has decreased dramatically compared to the prior year. Excluding foreign exchange gains, our operating losses decreased by approximately 50%. Administrative expenses have been reduced by 40% from the prior year period and property related costs have been eliminated entirely due to the spin out of NovaCopper and the sale of Rock Creek last year. Turning to our cash flow slide on page 10, the cash used in operating activities was $12.9 million in the second quarter, including a $2.6 million interest payment on the convertible notes. Approximately 77% of the notes retired in May with US$22.2 million remaining. At the end of May, our cash position was US$215 million. We believe that we have sufficient cash to fund the advancement of Donlin Gold through permitting, support ongoing activities at Galore Creek and repay the remaining convertible notes in 2015. Today, NovaGold is a simpler and more focused company. As shown on Slide 11, our ongoing expenditures in operations have been reduced by nearly two thirds since last year. For 2013, we continue to expect to spend $15 million at Donlin, $8 million at Galore Creek, $15 million in administrative costs and $3 million in interest. We also continue to evaluate opportunities to further reduce our costs. With that Greg, I will pass it back to you.

Thank you, Dave. We thought it would be timely to provide more information on permitting in the United States and how the Donlin Gold project compares to other projects which have been previously permitted. Slide 12 provides a snapshot of the results from our latest public comment period which was completed early in the second quarter. The meetings were held in the villages around Donlin and in Anchorage, Alaska. They were all well attended and the Corps of Engineers received positive and constructive reviews on Donlin Gold as part of the EIS process. This is really a testament to the great foundation which the Donlin Gold team has built and the excellent work and extensive community outreach which has taken place over the last 16 years. The public scoping summary was finalized and will be posted on the EIS website in the near future. An illustration of the timeline is provided on Slide 13. Permitting has now been underway for about a year. I’m very encouraged by the progress to date. The Corp began working on the preliminary draft environmental impact statement shortly after the completion of the public scoping period. Permitting in Alaska is a clearly defined federal and state environmental review process which involves the preparation of an EIS. The EIS is generally the most time consuming portion of permitting. The Donlin Gold notice of intent to prepare an EIS was published in the federal register last December and the public scoping process ended on March 29. On Slide 14 and as part of the draft EIS process, Donlin Gold has been working closely with the Corps of Engineers and cooperating agencies. This is in line with Donlin’s commitment to best practices. We held a number of working sessions with the Corp and cooperating agencies to provide an…

(Operator instructions). Our first question comes from the line of John Bridges. Please proceed. John Bridges – JPMorgan: Congratulations on the results. Just wondered with the downturn in the industry, any new thoughts on savings that can be made to the original planned capital budget?

John, good morning and thank you for joining the call. We continue to evaluate opportunities for third party participation and there’s real interest in some aspects of the project and we’ll continue to work through those. I think we’ll be providing a more detailed update in the fourth quarter of this year. But across the board we’ve seen a slowdown in activities relating to mining. Engineering firms are now soliciting work. Equipment availability has dramatically changed in the last couple of years. So it really has turned in our favor in the last year and we look forward to updating everybody later in the year. John Bridges – JPMorgan: You were getting a few inquiries from contractors looking to see when you were going to initiate. Obviously that's quite a ways out. Are they still coming in?

Yes, they are, John and another sign of the times is we’re continuing to receive a lot of interest from people wanting to come work for NovaGold. Those people are aware most of the major companies are cutting back. So a lot of circumstances are working in our favor right now. John Bridges – JPMorgan: Well, good luck guys. Thanks again for the color.

Our next question comes from the line of Jay Mecklinger. Please proceed

Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions. One, perhaps you could comment on what you think the value of your 50% share of Galore Creek in terms of dollars, what you think that you could realize for it. And just to comment on that, I would think that if -- since the environment is so bad, if you couldn't get something that is reasonable, I would hope as a shareholder that you would hold it and wait for better times. That's one. Second, my other question would be -- is rather, you speak so well of Donlin Creek and the unique asset that it is. So that leads me to ask, what is your share position of NovaGold? And as well perhaps you could comment, David as well, what you guys own of the Company, because as a stakeholder I like to be -- I hope that I don't own more shares than management.

Well, let me start with the Galore question first, Jay. Yeah, we have a couple of reference points on the value of Galore. Some years ago when copper was considerably less in price than it is now, our partner Teck completed spending of $400 million to earn their 50%. NovaGold has spent comparable amounts. So we would consider that to be a reference point in the value. Right now the industry is in a lot of turbulence and uncertainty and frankly it’s not a good time to be selling assets. We’re fortunate we’re in a great position. We do not need to sell the Galore Creek asset to raise money. We’re in great shape financially. So we’re content to hang onto that asset and advance it until market conditions are such that we can get fair value. We’re continuing to explore. We’ve updated the Street on some great drill results earlier this year, and we’ll be putting out an updated resource estimate in the third quarter. So, I agree with you, Jay, it’s a tough time to be selling that asset and we’re happy to keep it because it’s a great asset and it’s in British Columbia. It will be recognized in the market when sentiment changes. To the other question on management ownership in the Company, certainly I have shares in the company as do all of the management. Our Chairman, Tom Kaplan is also our largest shareholder, and through options and other programs every employee in NovaGold has a stake in the success of the company. So, I think in the interest of management is fully aligned with the interest of our shareholders.

Jay, one note, you can look up all this information in our management information circular which is on SEDAR or on EDGAR.

(Operator instructions). Our next question comes from the line of John Tumazos. Please proceed

Congratulations on all of us still standing. With Barrick having supposedly reduced their headquarters from 400 to 300 and making other rationalizations across the company, have they made the decisions concerning the people who have been doing the Donlin project? Have you had any assurances from them in the last -- in the days since gold touched $1,200 that they’re continuing with the Donlin project? Obviously you couldn't tell us if it's included in their write-offs that might come later this month. But rooting for NovaGold, it wouldn't bother me at all if you had 100% of the project by the way. Could you tell us if the other half is a going concern at the moment?

John, these are turbulent times in the industry and I really don’t know what’s happening in our partner’s headquarters. But Anchorage, Alaska is a long ways from Toronto, Canada. It’s business as usual at Donlin. There has been no changes to the management team. In these turbulent times the most important thing we can do is focus on the things we can control. Everybody at Donlin is completely focused on the permitting and advancing the project. NovaGold certainly in-house has the expertise and the experience to complete the permitting and take the project forward on our own or with our partner.

If I could continue, Greg, on an analogous vein, the prices of copper and coal have fallen, affecting your other partner Teck, and oil sands don't look so good these days for various reasons. And all the minerals that Galore would sell have recently fallen in price. Is there anybody up at the camp this year doing any work?

Yes, John. As we mentioned in our presentation, this year’s budget at Galore is about $16 million or $8 million to NovaGold. Most of that will be spent on a 10,000 meter drill program in the Legacy zone, which is the zone in mineralization that was discovered last year. We’ll be determining the extent of this zone and getting a better handle on the importance of it to the project economics.

So there hasn't -- the budgets that were made at the beginning of the year were made at better metals prices or virtually any prices for the resource there?

At any prices.

So they haven't changed the budget or canceled the drilling or anything like that?

No, not at all. It’s carrying on as we speak.

Business as usual?

Very much so, John.

(Operator instructions). Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Walker. Please proceed

Greg, I'm wondering if you can could look at -- in the EIS process itself, over the next six months or between now and year-end or early 2014, what are the key elements of the EIS that have to be accomplished? And when can we expect to see feedback from either the Corps of Engineers or the regulatory agencies? And do you think you can take that into early 2014 if you would?

Well, good morning Stephen. I wouldn’t say there’s any one key asset or aspect of the environmental impact study that’s more important than others. Some of the scoping comments are what we would have anticipated such as the impacts on barge traffic on the Kuskokwim River. Air quality, air emissions is always scrutinized thoroughly throughout the process. I think we were pleased with how it went. There was a lot of interest in the project. Everybody that attended the meetings had good knowledge of the project which is a great basis to start from. Stephen, really there was nothing unanticipated in the process, but it’s a big operation and many important issues will be studied. Those issues include the socioeconomic benefits and the impact to stakeholders. The process went well and we’re moving into the preparation of the draft EIS which is -- it’s mainly a document that’s reviewed internally amongst the various agencies. There will be milestones along the way and we’ll continue to provide updates. But so far we’re slightly ahead of -- we said it would take three to four years and the Corp of Engineers has posted a completion date on their website of November of 2015, which is right in the middle of what we anticipated when we started this process. So I think we’ve set a realistic timeline and we’re tracking very well with it at this stage.

Just two follow-up questions. In other permitting jurisdictions where the Corp has been involved, the Corp being I guess a branch of the military, there tends to be a lot of transfer of some of the individuals involved. Have you been fortunate in having the same senior officials involved from the start? Or have you seen transfer of senior people within Corp to date within the permitting process?

A year into the process it’s been steady so far, Stephen. But people do come and go in the military and I think the Corp in Alaska is very well staffed. I don’t think the movement of one or two people at the top of the organization would impact us. There is I’d say not a lot of activity going on. So our project is able to get everyone’s full attention.

Then just one last question. In the feedback that you’ve received so far in the public hearing or feedback from the Corp and the agencies, do you have all the baseline environmental data collected within the watershed area, within the project site, or have you been asked or required to collect additional baseline data for the EIS?

That’s a good question, Stephen. One of the key aspects of the review we’ve gone through in the last year is the data adequacy. The Corp has come back and asked us to do a couple more shallow hydrology testing wells which we’re drilling now. But other than that -- and that’s a fairly minor undertaking which we had anticipated. Other than that we’ve not been requested to do any additional studies. We believe we’ve done an extremely thorough job in preparing the database. That’s an important point you raise in that if you’re requested to collect significantly more data that it can certainly cause delays, but the requested drilling will be over and done with in a couple of months. So we feel pretty good about the depth of our database. Clearly the Corp of Engineers and the other agencies share that view.

We also have a question coming from the line of Charles Mayers. With gold prices declining due to improving economics, what is your estimate of future gold price?

Charles, gold has been in a great market for 10 years. It’s had corrections up and down along the way. We view this is as a short term phenomena and we think gold prices will be substantially higher in two years when we’re getting close to a production decision. So day in, day out we don’t worry too much about the gold prices. We’re just focused on getting this asset permitted and in a position to make a construction decision based on the economic conditions at the time.

Operator, that is all for questions online.

There are no further questions in the queue. You may now proceed to your closing remarks Mr. Lang.

I’d just like to thank everybody for their interest in our company and your continued support. Good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.