New Gold Inc. is a Canadian mining company that owns and operates the New Afton gold-silver-copper mine in British Columbia and the Rainy River gold-silver mine in Ontario, Canada. Through a Mexican subsidiary company, they also own the Cerro San Pedro gold-silver mine in

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

, Mexico, which ceased operation in 2017. While New Gold was founded in 1980 for the purposes of mineral exploration, the company became a mine operator with its merger of Peak Gold and Metallica Resources in 2008. A fourth company, Western Goldfields, joined in 2009. Together they operated the Peak mine in Australia and Mesquite Mine in California but sold both in 2018. Headquartered in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, shares of the company are traded on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

and

NYSE American NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...

Operating mines

As of 2020, New Gold operates two mines: * New Afton - The New Afton gold-silver-copper mine is an underground (block cave) mine located within the footprint of the Afton mine, 10 km west of

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North Thompson River, North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the ad ...

, British Columbia, Canada. That original Afton mine was an open pit mine that was operated by Teck Corporation (later Teck Cominco) between 1977 and 1997. In targeting a specific mineral deposit, New Gold constructed underground tunnels, along with a new concentrator and tailings facility. They achieved commercial production in July 2012 at which time the mine had an expected 12 year life. Between 2013 and 2019 the mine produced between 69,000 and 105,000 ounces of gold each year. *Rainy River - The Rainy River mine is a gold-silver mine located within the

Rainy River District Rainy River District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1885. It is the only division in Ontario that lies completely in the Central Time Zone, except for the township o ...

in western Ontario, Canada. New Gold acquired mineral rights to the area in 2013 and immediately pursued its development so that it was able to achieve commercial production in late-2017. It is designed to be an open pit mine that would transition to underground tunnels over its 14 year life. It quickly became their best producing mine with 227,000 ounces of gold produced in 2018 and 253,000 ounces in 2019.

Corporate history

New Gold Inc was the result of a merger in July 2008 of three companies (New Gold, Peak Gold, Metallica Resources) in various stages of developing and operating gold mines in North and South America and in Australia. Individually, the three were junior mining companies listed on the

with Peak Gold listed solely on the

TSX Venture Exchange The TSX Venture Exchange is a stock exchange in Canada. It is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia, with offices in Toronto and Montreal. All trading through the Exchange is done electronically, so the Exchange does n ...

, and the other two interlisted on the

American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was known ...

. Combined, they formed a $1.6 billion mid-tier mining company with 3.2 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves. Though it was the smallest of the three, New Gold became the parent company with Metallica Resources and Peak Gold becoming subsidiaries. Shareholders of Metallica Resources were given a 45.7% stake in New Gold with and Peak Gold shareholders being given 37.8% and the remaining 16.5% share going to the old New Gold shareholders. A year later, Western Goldfields Inc was added in an all-stock deal which gave Western Goldfields shareholders a 42% stake of the new company.

Original companies

The original New Gold brought with it its developing New Afton mine near

Kamloops, British Columbia Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the administrative centre ...

. The company had been founded in 1980 as DRC Resources Corporation, headquartered in Vancouver, to investigate previously explored mineral properties in Canada for their exploitation potential. One of these properties, acquired in 1999, was the Afton Mine which had produced gold and copper from 1977 to 1988. In 2005, the company sold its other assets to pursue the Afton project as it had emerged as a viable prospect for profitably developing, and they changed their name to New Gold Inc. Peak Gold Ltd. contributed two operating gold mines to the new company: the Peak Mine in Australia and Amapari Mine in Brazil.

Goldcorp Goldcorp Inc. was a gold production company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company stood among the largest gold producers in the world, employed about 15,800 people worldwide, engaged in gold mining and related activit ...

had inherited those mines, along with others, when it merged with Wheaton River Minerals in 2005 and used GPJ Ventures Ltd, which was under the administration of Endeavour Financial, to spin off the two underperforming mines. Goldcorp retained a 22% interest in Peak Gold and was paid US$200 million in the April 2007 deal. Metallica Resources entered the merger as it was beginning to operate the Cerro San Pedro mine which had just produced to date 39,000 ounces of gold of its 1,500,000 ounces of proven and probable reserves. Metallica had acquired the property in 1995 for exploration purposes but they had struggled through its development phase in resolving environmental impacts and navigating the Mexican legal system to have its permits enforced. Metallica also added its El Morro project, which was undergoing feasibility studies, in Chile to the new company.

Divestments and further acquisitions

Peak Gold's CEO Bob Gallagher was the first CEO of the new company. They immediately closed the Amapari Mine in Brazil and then sold it, in 2010, to Australian mining company Beadell Resources. Meanwhile, in May 2009, Western Goldfields Ltd merged with New Gold, making its Mesquite Mine New Golds's third operating mine. Similar to the other original companies, Western Goldfields was interlisted on the American and Toronto stock exchanges and was transitioning to become an operating gold producer. The American company, which had moved its headquarters to Toronto in 2006, had acquired the old Mesquite Mine in

Imperial County, California Imperial County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, ranking as the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat and largest city is ...

in 2003. While mining at Mesquite had ceased in 2001, the company pursued reactivation with an improved mine plan and achieved commercial production in January 2008 and produced a total of 108,325 ounces of gold in that year. New Gold had produced 233,103 ounces of gold in 2008 from the Cerro San Pedro and Peak mines, followed by 301,773 ounces in 2009 as the Mesquite mine was added, then 382,911 ounces in 2010 and 387,155 ounces in 2011. In that same timeframe, New Gold also produced between 1.1 and 2.1 million ounces of silver each year from the Cerro San Pedro mine and between 8 and 15 million pounds of copper annually from the Peak Mine. Throughout 2011 New Gold acquired three

-listed mineral exploration companies: Richfield Ventures Corp., Silver Quest Resources Ltd., and Geo Minerals Ltd. All three had exploration rights in the Blackwater area, west of

Quesnel, British Columbia Quesnel () is a city in the Cariboo Regional District of British Columbia, Canada. Located nearly evenly between the cities of Prince George and Williams Lake, it is on the main route to northern British Columbia and the Yukon. Quesnel is loca ...

, and New Gold would pursue it as a development project. Likewise, in 2013 New Gold took over

TSX The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

-listed Rainy River Resources Ltd., as well as Bayfield Ventures Corp. in 2014, for their rights in the Rainy River area in northwestern Ontario. Meanwhile, New Gold had successfully developed and achieved commercial production, in June 2012, at its New Afton mine. From 2012 to 2016, New Gold operated four mines. They produced 411,892 ounces of gold in 2012, then as the Cerro San Pedro mine passed its peak production and New Afton rose, 397,688 ounces in 2013; 380,135 ounces in 2014; 435,718 ounces in 2015; and 381,663 ounces in 2016. During that same timeframe, New Gold also produced between 1.3 and 1.9 million ounces of silver each year mostly from the Cerro San Pedro mine and between 42 and 102 million pounds of copper annually from the New Afton and Peak mines. Following the retirement of Chief Executive Officer Bob Gallagher in June 2016, President Randall Oliphant also acted as CEO until Vice President Hannes Portmann took over those roles in 2017, followed by Raymond Threlkeld (who was formerly the CEO of both Western Goldfields and then of Rainy River Resources) in 2018. Finally, in September 2018, Renaud Adams was hired to be the permanent President/CEO. In those few years, they sold their 30% stake in the El Morro project in Chile to

for $90 million plus 4% of its future gold production, the Cerro San Pedro deposit had been depleted, the Rainy River achieved commercial production, and they sold the Peak Mine project to Australian mining company Aurelia Metals Limited for $58 million. Under Adams, they completed the sale of Mesquite Mine to Equinox Gold Corp. for $158 million and the sale of a 46% interest in the New Afton mine to the

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board () is an independent organization responsible for administering defined benefit pension plan, defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of ...

for $300 million cash. While the company produced 430,864 ounces in 2017, plus 1.2 million ounces of silver and 104 million pounds of copper, by 2018 they had been reduced to only two operating mines (Rainy River and New Afton) which combined to produce 315,483 ounces of gold and 85 million pounds of copper, followed by 486,141 ounces gold and 79 million pounds copper in 2019. While the company completed its environmental assessment phase of their Blackwater gold-silver project in central British Columbia, they sold the development project to

-listed Artemis Gold for C$190-million in cash, an 8%

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

on future production, and shares in Artemis Gold. In September 2020, New Gold was added to the

S&P/TSX Composite Index The S&P/TSX Composite Index is the benchmark Canadian stock market index representing roughly 70% of the total market capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Having replaced the TSE 300 Composite Index on May 1, 2002, the S&P/TSX Com ...

Past mines

*Cerro San Pedro - Located near the village of

Cerro de San Pedro Cerro de San Pedro is a village and seat of the municipality of Cerro de San Pedro, located in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí in central Mexico. It is located in hills, northeast of the city of San Luis Potosí. , the population was 95. T ...

in the Mexican state of

, the Cerro San Pedro gold-silver project was operated by New Gold's Mexican subsidiary Minera San Xavier S.A. de C.V. The mine opened in 2007 with an expected 10 mine life. While it was a locally unpopular project due to impacts on water resources and heritage sites, New Gold continued its operations, having produced between 100,000 and 140,000 ounces of gold annually until it began winding down operations in 2016 and closing completely in 2017. *Peak Mine - New Gold inherited from Peak Gold, the operation of the high-grade Peak gold-copper-lead mine near

Cobar Cobar is a town in Outback New South Wales, Australia, whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Highwa ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. New Gold produced 95,000 ounces of gold from the mine each year until it was sold in 2018. * Mesquite Mine - Located in

near the

Algodones Dunes The Algodones Dunes is a large sand dune field, or Erg (landform), erg, located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of California, near the border with Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California. The field is approximately long ...

, the Mesquite gold mine was operated by New Gold through its Western Goldfields subsidiary between 2009 and 2018 when it sold. Despite the low-grade of the mineral deposit, the mine produced between 107,000 and 170,000 ounces of gold each year.

Carbon footprint

New Gold reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for 31 December 2020 at 164 Kt.Alt URL
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References

{{authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Gold mining companies of Canada Silver mining companies Copper mining companies of Canada Companies based in Toronto