Novagold (NYSE, TSX: NG) announced on Tuesday that it had served short-seller J Capital Research USA (JCAP) with a civil action lawsuit for defamation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The company alleged that on May 28, JCAP issued a “report” on
Novagold that contained false and misleading statements as part of what the company believes to be a “short and distort” attack.
Novagold and Barrick have reopened the Donlin camp last month following a two-month due to the covid-19 pandemic
J Capital Research accuses managers of the Vancouver-based explorer of “systematically” misleading investors about its proposed Alaska gold mine over the last 15 years.
NovaGold and Barrick’s Donlin project, with measured and indicated resources of about 39-million ounces of gold is considered one of the largest open pit gold deposits in Alaska.
JCAP, a company founded in China a decade ago which usually targets overvalued media and tech companies for short-selling, says the Donlin Gold project “will never be built” and “in short, is a stock promote, not a mining plan.”
Drilling at Donlin
Novagold and Barrick have reopened the Donlin camp last month following a two-month due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Four drill rigs have been remobilized at the project, Novagold says.
The company anticipates that most of the planned program, aimed at confirming recent geologic modeling concepts and testing potential extensions of high-grade zones, will be completed by year-end.
The 2020 drill program consists of approximately 80 holes totalling about 22,000 metres centered on the ACMA and Lewis resource areas.
Midday Tuesday, Novagold’s stock was up 4.25% on the TSE. The company has a C$4.28 billion market capitalization.