NYSE American- and TSX-listed Novagold Resources on Tuesday announced that it had served short-seller J Capital Research USA (JCAP) with a civil action lawsuit for defamation in the US.
Novagold charges that JCAP’s May 28 report on the company contained false and misleading statements as part of what it describes as a “short and distort attack”.
NovaGold and Barrick Gold are advancing the Donlin project, which with measured and indicated resources of about 39-million ounces of gold is considered one of the largest and highest-grade known openpit gold deposits, in Alaska. But JCAP argues that the deposit is “so remote and technically challenging that the mine will never be built”.
In its report, JCAP has slammed Novagold management for misleading investors with “subjective presentations” of information about the deposit over a period of 15 years.
Novagold said its board of directors, led by chairperson Thomas Kaplan, was unanimous in its vote to aggressively pursue redress for the company.
International law firm Baker Botts has been retained to act on the company's behalf.