NovaGold said Johns will leave effective immediately. Johnson and has held numerous positions since joined the company in 1998.

NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said Johnson’s responsibilities will be assumed by others, while the company conducts a search for his replacement.

“NovaGold has been working hard to build shareholder value,” Van Nieuwenhuyse continued. ‘That Paulson & Co. and Soros Fund Management, two of the gold sector’s most respected investors, chose to augment their positions in the company with an additional investment of US$175 million last week is testament to the underlying value and long-term potential of our projects.”

At its 50 percent-owned Donlin Creek project in northwest Alaska, NovaGold and Barrick Gold are assessing optimization scenarios with the goal of reducing power and processing costs, including the potential to bring a source of natural gas to the project. These studies are targeted for completion by mid-2010, at which point the Donlin Creek LLC will either file permit applications for the original project design or approve a supplemental budget and proceed to revise the feasibility study to include the natural gas option. NovaGold will also release a new reserve/resource estimate for the project shortly, incorporating additional drill results.

At its 50 percent-owned Galore Creek project in northern British Columbia, NovaGold and partner Teck Resources Ltd. are working to complete a new mine plan for the project based on an optimized project design and higher copper and gold prices than used in previous studies. NovaGold and Teck also expect to initiate a pre-feasibility study for the project, with completion targeted for the first half of 2011. While the objective of Galore Creek optimization studies is to simplify the project design and potentially reduce the construction timeline and overall costs, the partners said they are also considering an increase to project throughput, and will have updated capital cost estimates when the pre-feasibility study is complete.

At its 100 percent-owned Ambler project in northern Alaska, NovaGold is working with the State of Alaska and local communities to review the options for infrastructure development in the region. NovaGold has appointed a project team to plan exploration activities, advance environmental baseline studies and conduct engineering and technical studies at the Ambler project to gain a better understanding of the true size and potential of the district.

And at its 100 percent-owned Rock Creek project near Nome, Alaska, NovaGold has made significant improvements to water management to ensure it continues to meet its permit requirements and environmental responsibilities. NovaGold is working with a team of industry experts to assess development options at Rock Creek, with a go-forward decision expected in the fourth quarter of 2010.