Newfoundland & Labrador ranked 7th out of 68 qualifying jurisdictions on the 2025 Fraser Institute Policy Perception Index (PPI), scoring 93.01 out of 100 — a ranking that supports applying a 5% rather than 8% to 10% discount rate to Queensway’s projected cash flows, directly preserving the project’s C$743M NPV.One hundred percent of exploration permits were issued within six months, with 40% granted within two months and 80% meeting stated timelines — reducing the period during which capital is committed but not productively deployed.Permitting timelines, land claim certainty, and regulatory duplication vary significantly across Canadian provinces; that variance affects the discount rate investors apply to a project’s NPV, the terms on which lenders provide financing, and whether a project qualifies under institutional fund mandates.New Found Gold is targeting an Environmental Assessment submission for Queensway in H1 2026 – the approval that must precede construction permitting and determines whether the company can meet its late 2027 Phase 1 production target.Institutional fund mandates require documented evidence of permitting transparency before a project qualifies for investment; Newfoundland & Labrador’s Fraser ranking, permit issuance rates, and timeline reliability provide that evidence in a form compliance teams can audit and record.Newfoundland & Labrador’s 2025 Fraser Ranking: What the Data Says
The 2025 Fraser Institute survey, published February 2026, assessed 68 qualifying jurisdictions – any jurisdiction with fewer than five survey responses was excluded. Newfoundland & Labrador ranked 7th on the PPI with a score of 93.01 out of 100. One hundred percent of exploration permits were issued within six months, with 40% granted within two months. The province recorded 80% of permit timelines met as stated and 100% respondent confidence in the eventual approval of compliant applications.
Exploration permits and Environmental Assessment (EA) approvals are distinct. Exploration permits cover early-stage drilling and sampling and are administrative in nature. EAs are required before mine construction and operation, involve multiple regulatory bodies, public consultation, and scientific review. The 100% issuance rate and sub-six-month timelines apply to exploration permitting specifically.
Why Permit Speed Matters Financially
When permits are delayed, capital committed to a project stops working. Extended review periods increase G&A burn without advancing the project, raise effective capex through cost inflation, compress IRR by pushing back the start of cash flows, and can force dilutive equity raises. A 12- to 24-month permitting delay increases effective project capex, reduces the window available to benefit from current gold prices, and introduces execution risk at the stage investors scrutinize most closely.
Jurisdiction as a Primary Valuation Variable
Mining project valuation has historically been anchored to grade (grams per tonne gold, or g/t Au), resource size (measured in millions of ounces, Moz), and projected AISC. These metrics remain essential, but policy risk, permitting timelines, and regulatory duplication now directly affect the discount rates applied in NPV calculations, financing availability, institutional fund eligibility, and shareholder base composition.
The Fraser Institute’s Policy Perception Index (PPI) measures how taxation, environmental regulations, infrastructure quality, unresolved land claims, and political stability affect exploration investment attractiveness. A high PPI score indicates that a jurisdiction’s regulatory framework does not obstruct capital deployment.
A jurisdiction’s policy environment feeds directly into a project’s Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). A higher WACC compresses NPV, extends payback periods, and increases the probability of timeline slippage – each of which reduces the risk-adjusted return investors require to commit capital. The practical consequence is that two projects of identical geology can carry materially different valuations based solely on where they are located.
Canada’s Fragmented Mining Landscape
Canada’s Tier-1 reputation at the national level does not reflect uniform conditions at the provincial level. Some provinces face unresolved Indigenous land claims, overlapping federal and provincial regulatory reviews, and environmental assessment processes that extend project timelines by years. These conditions directly affect whether institutional capital is allocated to a project.
Newfoundland & Labrador recorded a 23-point reduction in land claim uncertainty concerns and an 11-point decline in wilderness protection concerns among surveyed investors. Funds operating under ESG mandates apply liquidity thresholds, governance requirements, and reputational screens that can exclude a project regardless of its geology if the regulatory environment cannot be documented and audited. Newfoundland & Labrador’s permitting data provides that documentation.
New Found Gold’s Development Framework & Jurisdiction Context
New Found Gold is transitioning from exploration-stage valuation to an emerging producer profile – the stage at which execution risk is highest. The Queensway project, effective March 15, 2025, holds a resource of 1.392 Moz Indicated and 0.61 Moz Inferred. Indicated resources have sufficient drilling density to support reasonable continuity assumptions; Inferred resources carry higher uncertainty and cannot be used in mine planning under most regulatory and financing standards.
Environmental baseline work is complete in anticipation of an EA submission targeting late Q1 2026. EA approval must precede construction permitting and determines when the company can begin committing capital to infrastructure. The Newfoundland & Labrador regulatory environment reduces the probability of extended EA delays, but does not eliminate them.
The acquisition of Hammerdown and access to the Pine Cove mill removed the need to permit new processing infrastructure for Queensway from scratch. Chief Executive Officer Keith Boyle states:
“We had access to the permitted mill and tailings that saved us two to three years on Queensway.”Capital Efficiency: Financial Metrics & Jurisdictional Influence
At a US$2,500/oz gold base case: initial capex of C$155 million, NPV at 5% of C$743 million, IRR of 56.3%, and a Life of Mine average AISC of US$1,256/oz. Phase 1 AISC for Years 1 through 4 is modeled at US$1,282/oz at Queensway, consistent with Keith Boyle’s reference:
“If you look at the all-in sustaining – somewhere around $1,300 – when you start looking at what that margin is at today’s gold price, that’ll generate over $200 million a year.”
The cash flow figure reflects the gold price at the time of the interview and should not be read as a current financial projection. At the US$2,500/oz base case, current spot prices represent an upside scenario relative to modeled figures. NPV increases by approximately C$89 million for every US$100/oz increase in the gold price.
Keith Boyle has addressed the capital structure decision directly:
“The capex on a large plant that we had in the preliminary assessment was somewhere close to $900 million. Our market cap at the time was only $350 to $400 million, so we would have been in a bind to try and raise that kind of capital and not double the share count or more… Now we’re very mindful of the amount of dilution that will come out of this – very small relative to our market cap – raise for the project capital.”Jurisdictional Impact on Discount Rates
Institutional investors employ strict risk budgets and require deep diligence artefacts, such as discount rates and scenario sensitivities, to justify any deployment of capital. In its Queensway Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), New Found Gold models its robust C743 million after−tax Net Present Value (NPV) using a 2,500/oz base case gold price.
Using a low 5% discount rate implies a high degree of confidence in project execution and jurisdictional safety. Newfoundland & Labrador’s elite status in the 2025 Fraser Institute survey – ranking 7th globally out of 68 jurisdictions on the Policy Perception Index – provides the backing to support this assumption. Because the province offers clear permitting precedents and a mining-supportive government, it reduces the terminal regulatory risks that penalize projects in lower-ranked regions.
For institutional capital, the jurisdictional advantage increases the probability that Queensway’s modeled 56.3% Internal Rate of Return (IRR) at a US$2,500 gold price is practically achievable, rather than just a projection.
New Found Gold has engaged Cutfield Freeman & Co. Ltd. – a mining-specialist finance advisor with over 200 mandated transactions across 50 countries – to structure the financing package for Queensway Phase 1, a step that signals the company has moved from internal capital planning to active engagement with debt markets.
Risk Register: Material Considerations for Investors
Jurisdictional advantage reduces specific categories of risk but does not eliminate project risk. If the Queensway EA extends beyond the H1 2026 target, or if federal-provincial regulatory duplication increases, permitting risk rises and the late 2027 Phase 1 production target becomes harder to achieve. Capex inflation is a risk if the toll milling assumptions underpinning the C$155M estimate do not hold. Pine Cove is currently permitted for 1,300 tonnes per day; whether the planned expansion requires additional permits has not been publicly detailed.
Hammerdown achieved its first gold pour in 2025 and is advancing toward steady-state production in 2026. A delay reaching steady-state would reduce the cash flow available to support financing discussions. Keith Boyle has addressed this directly:
“What we’re learning in ramping up Hammerdown now – all those same skills – that’s a 700-ton-a-day open pit mine. We’re moving that same team, and the learnings from that, over to Queensway next year.”
A sustained gold price decline below US$2,500/oz reduces NPV and compresses cash margins. Current spot prices sit above the base case, providing buffer against that scenario.
The Investment Thesis for New Found GoldNewfoundland & Labrador’s 7th global PPI ranking supports applying a 5% discount rate to Queensway’s cash flows, which is what produces the C$743M NPV. A higher-risk jurisdiction would reduce that figure using identical project economics.One hundred percent of exploration permits issued within six months, confirmed in the February 2026 Fraser survey, reduces the period during which capital is committed but not productively deployed ahead of construction.The C$155M initial capex and 56.3% IRR reflect a project designed to avoid the dilutive capital raises that a larger plant would have required at the company’s previous market capitalization.Cutfield Freeman & Co. Ltd. has been engaged as project finance advisor, and the company is evaluating financing structures for Phase 1 capex, with a Phase 1 production target of late 2027.NPV increases by approximately C$89M per US$100/oz gold price increase, providing direct commodity leverage against the US$2,500/oz base case without adding jurisdictional or regulatory uncertainty.
Newfoundland & Labrador’s 7th global PPI ranking affects three specific variables: the discount rate investors apply to Queensway’s cash flows, the terms on which lenders will finance the project, and whether the project qualifies under institutional fund mandates. Each of these determines how much of the modeled C$743M NPV is accessible to shareholders.
For New Found Gold, the Queensway resource, Hammerdown’s path to steady-state production, Pine Cove’s permitted infrastructure, and the province’s regulatory record combine to reduce execution risk at the stage of development when that risk is highest. The province’s permitting data directly affects the probability that the modeled 56.3% IRR is achieved, not just projected. Investors should evaluate jurisdictional certainty as a quantifiable input to return modeling, not a qualitative footnote.
TL;DR
Newfoundland & Labrador’s 7th-place finish on the 2025 Fraser Institute Policy Perception Index – scoring 93.01 out of 100 across 68 jurisdictions – is a quantifiable input to Queensway’s C$743M NPV, supporting the 5% discount rate that produces that figure. Being in a jurisdiction where 100% of exploration permits issued within six months, having a C$155M initial capex enabled by Pine Cove’s existing permitted infrastructure, and a 56.3% IRR modeled at a US$2,500/oz gold base case, the project’s financial structure is designed to minimise dilution and maximise capital efficiency at the stage of development when execution risk is highest.
What does Newfoundland & Labrador’s Fraser Institute ranking actually mean for New Found Gold’s project valuation?
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The province’s 7th-place finish on the 2025 Policy Perception Index, scoring 93.01 out of 100, directly supports applying a 5% discount rate to Queensway’s projected cash flows. A higher-risk jurisdiction would force a higher discount rate – typically 8% to 10% – which would materially reduce the C$743M NPV using identical project economics. Jurisdictional quality is therefore a quantifiable valuation input, not a qualitative descriptor.
Do the fast exploration permitting timelines apply to Queensway’s Environmental Assessment?
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No. The 100% permit issuance rate within six months applies specifically to exploration permits, which are administrative approvals covering early-stage drilling and sampling. The Environmental Assessment is a separate, more complex process involving multiple regulatory bodies, public consultation, and scientific review. New Found Gold is targeting an EA submission in H1 2026, and EA approval must precede construction permitting. The provincial regulatory environment reduces the probability of extended EA delays but does not eliminate that risk.
Why did New Found Gold choose a smaller plant design rather than the larger facility modelled in the preliminary assessment?
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The original preliminary assessment modelled a plant with capex approaching C$900M – a figure that would have required raising capital significantly in excess of the company’s market capitalisation at the time, resulting in severe share count dilution. The current Phase 1 design, anchored by toll milling through Pine Cove’s existing permitted infrastructure, reduces initial capex to C$155M, preserves the 56.3% IRR, and keeps dilution manageable relative to current market capitalisation.
How sensitive is the C$743M NPV to changes in the gold price?
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NPV increases by approximately C$89M for every US$100/oz increase in the gold price above the US$2,500/oz base case. Current spot prices sit above that base case, providing a buffer against downside scenarios and representing an upside scenario relative to modelled figures. Investors should treat the base case NPV as a conservative reference point rather than a ceiling.
What is the significance of engaging Cutfield Freeman & Co. Ltd. as a project finance advisor?
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The appointment of Cutfield Freeman & Co. Ltd. – a mining-specialist finance advisor with over 200 mandated transactions across 50 countries – signals that New Found Gold has moved from internal capital planning to active engagement with debt markets. For institutional investors, this represents a material step toward financing certainty for Phase 1 capex, which is a prerequisite for the late 2027 production target and for confirming that the modelled IRR is practically achievable rather than purely projected.