New Found Gold Corp. announced the results from 30 diamond drill holes that were completed as part of a nprogram designed to test the down-plunge extents of the Keats Main Zone located along the highly prospective Appleton Fault Zone. New Found's 100%-owned Queensway project comprises a 1500km2 area, accessible via the Trans-Canada Highway, 15km west of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The overall Keats area now spans a strike length of approximately 1.6km and is comprised of several high-grade gold discoveries including those made at Keats Main, Keats North, and most recently, Keats West (reported on September 27, 2022). Exploration along the southern extents of Keats Main, which is defined by gold mineralization hosted within the extensive damage zone associated with the Keats-Baseline Fault Zone, has extended the strike length of Keats Main Zone to 1km with high-grade intervals of 12.87 g/t Au over 10m in NFGC-22-527B and 45.05 g/t Au over 2.25m in NFGC-22-550. Ongoing drill testing working to extend the Keats Main Zone along strike and at depth has also intersected broad domains of low-grade gold mineralization at vertical depths of up to 400m as demonstrated by the interval of 2.79 g/t Au over 12.35m in NFGC-22-600.

These regions are characterized by extensive silicification, brecciation, and sulphide mineralization. Continued exploration drilling in the central portions of the Keats Main Zone targeting the Equinox Vein, a key component of the high-grade gold domain that plunges to the southwest within a segment of the KBFZ has intersected gold-rich portions of the vein, highlights of which include 28.33 g/t Au over 2.05m in NFGC-22-608 and 68.19 g/t Au over 2.05m in NFGC-22-616. The Equinox Vein to date has been traced over a strike length of 720m and 120m down-dip.

All drilling recovers HQ core. Drill core is split in half using a diamond saw or a hydraulic splitter for rare intersections with incompetent core. A professional geologist examines the drill core and marks out the intervals to be sampled and the cutting line.

Sample lengths are mostly 1.0 meter and adjusted to respect lithological and/or mineralogical contacts and isolate narrow (<1.0m) veins or other structures that may yield higher grades. Once all sample intervals have been chosen, photos of the wet and dry core are taken for future reference. Technicians saw the core along the defined cut line.

One-half of the core is kept as a witness sample and the other half is submitted for crushing, pulverizing, and assaying. Individual sample bags are sealed and placed into shipping pails and/or nylon shipping bags, sealed and marked with the contents. Drill core samples are shipped to ALS Canada Ltd. (ALS) for sample preparation in Sudbury, Ontario, Thunder Bay, Ontario, or Moncton, New Brunswick; an ISO-17025 accredited laboratory.

ALS operates under a commercial contract with New Found. The entire sample is crushed to approximately 70% passing 2 mm. A 3,000-g split is pulverized.

"Routine" samples do not have visible gold (VG) identified and are not within a mineralized zone. Routine samples are assayed for gold by 30-g fire assay with an inductively-couple plasma spectrometry (ICP) finish. If the initial 30-g fire assay gold result is over 1 g/t, the remainder of the 3,000-g split is screened at 106 microns for screened metallics assay.

For the screened metallics assay, the entire coarse fraction (sized greater than 106 microns) is fire assayed and two splits of the fine fraction (sized less than 106 microns) are fire assayed. The three assays are combined on a weight-averaged basis. Samples that have VG identified or fall within a mineralized interval are automatically submitted for screened metallic assay for gold.

All sample pulps are also analyzed for a multi-element ICP package (ALS method code ICP61). Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results are performed by qualified persons employing a rigorous Quality Assurance/Quality Control program consistent with industry best practices. Standards and blanks account for a minimum of 10% of the samples in addition to the laboratory's internal quality assurance programs. Quality Control data are evaluated on receipt from the laboratories for failures.

Appropriate action is taken if assay results for standards and blanks fall outside allowed tolerances. All results stated have passed New Found's quality control protocols. New Found's quality control program also includes submission of the second half of the core for approximately 5% of the drilled intervals.

In addition, approximately 1% of sample pulps for mineralized samples are submitted for re-analysis to a second ISO-accredited laboratory for check assays. The Company does not recognize any factors of drilling, sampling or recovery that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the assay data disclosed.