Project spending for Rainy River totaled $903 million through March, and spending of an additional $389 million was planned through to the start of commercial production.

The Rainy River project currently has 3.9 million oz of gold in reserves and 2.3 million oz of gold in measured and indicated resources.

The Rainy River property is located in Richardson township in northwest Ontario, approximately 160 km south of Kenora and 420 km west of Thunder Bay. Excellent infrastructure includes year-round road access and powerlines in close proximity to the site, as well as a railway 21 km to the south. The town of Fort Frances 66 km southeast of the site has a population of approximately 10,000 people, eliminating the need to establish a camp at site.

“We are pleased with the solid progress we have made at Rainy River over the last five months,” said New Gold President and CEO Hannes Portmann. “Through the second quarter, our team has both successfully commenced the staged commissioning of our process facility and delivered on our mining plan. As the pit has opened up, our operations team has recently delivered further increases in the mining rate, including several days of production of more than 130,000 mt/d.”

The primary crusher and conveyor system were commissioned on schedule, and the first crush occurred on May 11. Commissioning of the refining portion of the circuit began in July, and dry and wet commissioning of the full process circuit was scheduled for August.