New Found Gold Declares Commercial Production at Hammerdown Gold Mine

New Found Gold Corp. is pleased to declare commercial production at its 100% owned Hammerdown Gold Mine, located in Central Newfoundland, Canada. Commercial production was defined based on meeting three criteria on a sustained basis over 60 consecutive days. The criteria consist of throughput at the Pine Cove Mill of at least 600 tonnes per day (85% of the 700 tpd nameplate capacity of the Mill), gold recovery of at least 80% and feed grade of at least 80% of the mine plan head grade, as outlined in the Hammerdown preliminary economic assessment. With the three criteria met, the milestone of commercial production was achieved on August 19, 2026, with average throughput of approximately 748 tpd, 87.7% gold recovery and average feed grade of 2.92 grams of gold per tonne over the 60 consecutive days.

Achieving commercial production at Hammerdown on schedule is a major milestone for New Found Gold and the next step toward becoming Canada's next mid-tier gold producer. This achievement could only have been reached through the hard work and dedication of our operations team; to each and everyone of you I send my sincere gratitude. With commercial production underway at Hammerdown, we will continue to focus on delivering solid gold production, while advancing our flagship Queensway Gold Project to production.

Hammerdown produced a total of 9,140 ounces of gold in the first eight months of 2026, including 1,989 ounces of gold in August 2026. The average realized sale price over the first eight months of 2026 was $6,271 per ounce of gold (approximately US$4,532/oz Au). Additional information related to Hammerdown production will be included in the Company's third quarter 2026 financial statements.

Health and Safety During the ramp up period, the Mine and Mill has recorded Zero Lost Time Incidents after a total of over 262,049 person-hours worked in 2026.

Human Resources New Found Gold has a total workforce of 445 people at Hammerdown and Pine Cove as of July 15, 2026, comprised of 94 employees and 351 contractors. The Company has created 65 new jobs to date at Hammerdown and Pine Cove and has hired all key positions. Over 90% of the new hires are from NL and 60% of the workforce live within an hour's drive of their place of work.

The PEA returned an after-tax net present value at a 5 percent discount rate (NPV 5%) of $199.2 million at the base case gold price (variable price deck: long-term price of US$3,475/oz Au averaging US$3,656/oz Au) and an after-tax NPV 5% of $415.1 M at the upside gold price of US$5,000/oz Au. Average life of mine cash costs and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) are US$2,149/oz Au and US$2,429/oz Au, respectively. The PEA outlined a 13-year open pit project commencing in 2026, including one year of stockpile rehandling in 2038. With sorting, a total of 3.2 M tonnes of mineralized material at an average grade of 2.89 g/t Au will be processed with total gold recovery of 251.3 thousand ounces of gold.

The construction of the crusher and sorter are progressing on schedule for anticipated completion in Q4/26. Once operational, this equipment is expected to reduce crushing costs and allow for delivery of higher-grade material to the Mill.