Wildfires prompt New Found to halt heavy equipment exploration
New Found Gold Corp. [NFG-TSXV] has announced that due to forest fires in Newfoundland, it has temporarily suspended heavy equipment exploration activities at its Queensway gold project.
“The fire weather index across the island of Newfoundland is classified as extreme or very high, with several major fires burning,” said New Found CEO Keith Boyle. “At this time our thoughts are with our employees, and contractors, or local communities and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.” The company said it plans to provide additional information when available.
The Queensway project covers approximately 1,500 square kilometres and is located about 15 kilometres west of Gander. The project is divided by Gander Lake into Queensway North and Queensway South.
The company has previously said a regional exploration program at Queensway South and Queensway North was underway and was expected to run until late September 2025. Exploration has focused on areas that can be accessed by the Trans-Canada Highway.
“Recent drilling continues to yield new discoveries along strike and down dip of known gold zones, pointing to the district-scale potential of the project that covers a 110-kilometre strike extent along two prospective fault zones,” the company said.
Back in March, 2025, New Found announced an initial mineral resource estimate for its Queensway Project.
The company announced an indicated mineral resource of 18 million tonnes of grade 2.40 g/t gold, or 1.39 million ounces. On top of that is an inferred resources of 10.7 million tonnes of grade 1.77 g/t gold or 0.61 million ounces.
In a press release on July 21, 2025, the company released the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the development of the AFZ Core on the Queensway project. The PEA envisions a 15-year life of mine producing 1.5 million ounces of recoverable gold and is planned to be developed in three phases. The company said phasing of the project allows for lower upfront capital requirements, early revenue generation, funding of subsequent phases, processing highest grade first, and best in class in pit tailings disposition.
Phase 1.0 involves preparing the Queensway site and installing the infrastructure for a small open pit mine. High grade material will be crushed and transported to an off-site toll mill located in Newfoundland, at a rate of 700 tonnes per day for the first five years of the operation. Phase two involves the construction of an on-site 7,000-tonne-per-day processing plant in year three, with construction completed by year four.
Phase three involves underground mine development and operation in years six to 10.
On Thursday, the shares eased 0.46% or $0.01 to $2.18 and trade in a 52-week range of $4.28 and $1.34.
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