Gregory A. Lang has accepted the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of NovaGold effective January 2012. Mr. Lang comes to NovaGold from Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick Gold") where most recently he was President of Barrick Gold of North America, Barrick Gold's wholly-owned subsidiary. In that capacity, Mr. Lang had executive responsibility for Barrick Gold's nine operations in the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic, including the Donlin Gold project, equally owned by wholly-owned subsidiaries of NovaGold and Barrick Gold.

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Gregory Lang, former president of Barrick Gold North America, will take the helm of NovaGold effective immediately. The company will spin off its copper project, Ambler, to create NovaCopper, a subsidiary, led by founder and former CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, and the company is open to selling half or all of its interest in Galore Creek, which it co-owns with Teck Resoures (TCK-N37.49-0.51-1.34%).