New Found Gold unveils executive shuffle
New Found Gold Corp. [NFG-TSXV] said Thursday it has named founder and Chairman Collin Kettell as CEO. The company also said Vijay Mehta has joined its board of directors. Mehta is a co-founder of Arkview Capital, a minority-certified equity fund based in New York that is focused on investing in diversity-oriented businesses.
Palisades Goldcorp., a resource-focused merchant bank founded by Kettell, recently held 31% of the company’s shares.
As part of a planned transition, Craig Roberts has resigned as CEO and from the board. However, he will continue with the company as a full-time consultant in the role of lead adviser.
The executive suite shuffle comes just days after Novo Resources Corp. [NVO-TSX, NVO.WT, WT.A, NSRPF-OTCQX] said it has agreed to sell its 15 million New Found Gold shares to a corporation controlled by Bay Street financier Eric Sprott for $125.9 million.
The sale is expected to increase Sprott’s stake in New Found to 31%.
New Found is working to advance Canada’s newest high grade gold discovery on its 100%-owned Queensway project in central Newfoundland.
“New Found finds itself in an enviable position at a time when investors are showing interest in gold and gold equities,” Kettell said. “To date we have made multiple high-grade gold discoveries over approximately 2.7 kilometres of strike along the Appleton fault zone that have each yielded spectacular high-grade gold drill intervals,” he said.
“We now have a dedicated team of over 180 staff and contractors on site, 11 drills currently running, soon ramping up to 14, executing on a planned 400,000-metre drill program, and construction of our new 25,000-square-foot Gigashack core logging facility is well advanced.”
In press release, Kettell outlined the reasons for the transition. “When I asked Craig to join as CEO in early 2020, he committed to this role for several years with the intention that I would transition into the CEO role over this time frame,” he said.
“We both agree that the time is now right for this transition.”
New Found shares advanced on the news, rising 0.34% or $0.03 to $8.95 in light trading. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $13.50 and $4.67.
The Queensway project covers approximately 1,500 square kilometres with the initial exploration focused on areas that can be accessed by the Trans-Canada Highway, about 15 kilometres west of Gander, Newfoundland.
The project is divided by Gander Lake into Queensway North and Queensway South.
So far, New Found has discovered three robust structurally controlled high-grade deposits: Keats, Lotto, Golden Joint. These occur along an approximately 2.0-kilometre corridor of the Appleton Fault Zone on Queensway North.
On April 13, 2022, the company reported a new high-grade gold discovery between the Keats and Golden Joint zones, located approximately 440 metres north of the Keats zone.
Hole NFGC-22-515 was the first hole drilled as part of a planned systematic program to drill test along the Appleton Fault Zone. It returned 9.21 g/t over 2.15 metres and 43.9 g/t over 3.85 metres.