Novagold Resources on Monday hit back against a report from J Capital Research released late May that accused managers of the Vancouver-based explorer of “systematically” misleading investors about its proposed Alaska gold mine over the last 15 years.
J Cap, a company founded in China a decade ago which usually targets overvalued media and tech companies for short-selling, said the Donlin Gold project, which is 50-50 owned by Novagold and Barrick, “will never be built” and “in short, this is a stock promote, not a mining plan.”
Shares in Novagold (NYSE: AMERICAN, TSX: NG) fell by more than 12% on Monday and are now down 25% since the publication of the report, pushing the company’s market value to $2.6 billion.
Greg Lang, Novagold president and CEO said the response, which includes a 40 page line-by-line rebuttal of the original J Cap report, explains why the company is “so determinedly assessing all of the legal options available to it in various jurisdictions.”
Among other points, Novagold says its response demonstrates:
Click here for the full report and here for a letter to shareholders from Novagold’s board chair Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan also released today.