The recent merger between Barrick and Randgold will not have a significant impact on the Donlin gold project that Novagold is developing in a partnership with the gold major in Alaska, leaving the junior essentially in a “win-win position”, president and CEO Greg Lang said on Wednesday.

The changes at Barrick are essentially a “white swan event”, which should have little implications for Novagold and its 50%-owned Donlin – a federally-permitted gold project that is one of the world’s largest and highest-grade openpit developments.

“If Barrick, under the leadership of Mark Bristow, stays in, we believe it will be great for our shareholders to have such experienced partners. If, on the other hand, Barrick exits in favour of a motivated buyer that seeks ownership in a US asset with unique technical and jurisdictional attributes, we will welcome a new partner with the obvious appreciation of how accretive this asset is for just about anyone in the industry,” Lang said, noting that either outcome should be positive for shareholders.

The Donlin project has an endowment of about 39-million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories and rivals some of the best mines in the industry, with an average grade of 2.24 g/t. The mine is forecast to produce more than one-million ounces a year over a projected 27 years, but Lang said that its operating life was expected to go beyond that, considering the known resources encompassed only 3 km of an 8 km mineralised belt.

Federal permitting of Donlin was completed in the third quarter and work on state permits is advancing.

Novagold reported that, over the last nine months, a number of state permits had been received or advanced. Alaska issued a CWA Section 401 certificate of reasonable assurance indicating that the CWA 404/10 permit complies with the state’s water quality standards - the pollutant elimination system water discharge permit was issued with no appeal; the Department of Fish and Game delivered the Title 16 fish habitat permits for the mine area and transportation corridor; the Department of Environmental Conservation approved an extension by which construction of the project, as authorised by the prevention of significant deterioration air quality permit, must begin; and the final approval for the reclamation and closure plan, as well as the final waste management permit, were received last week.

The proposed state portion of the pipeline right-of-way and other state land use approvals are anticipated to be issued for public comment in the first half of 2019. The Alaska dam safety permits require additional fieldwork and more detailed engineering, that will start in 2019 and require a multi-year commitment.

Novagold is in a strong financial position to continue to advance the Donlin project, having recently sold its 50% interest in the Galore Creek project, in British Columbia, to gold major Newmont for up to $275-million.

At the end of November, Novagold had $167-million in cash and term deposits.