New Gold sees the glittery upside at Rainy River

New Gold is reaping the rewards from all the funds poured into this year’s exploration budget at its Rainy River Mine, northwest of Fort Frances.

The Toronto-headquartered gold miner said it’s identified promising new gold zones at surface and underground. The company had dedicated $9 million to run its first major exploration effort since 2017 in order to build up new reserves and extend the operating life of the mine.

Rainy River began seven years ago, and still runs as an open-pit mine but has been making the transition to begin mining underground. The current mine life lasts until 2031 so the company turned to the drill bit this year to extend its longevity by at least a decade.

The exploration strategy over the last eight months has to been to identify new gold zones in and around the area where the company is currently mining.

In a Sept. 11 news release, New Gold said these efforts have been successful in highlighting the best and brightest drill hits. Those results will be catalogued and folded into a new mineral resource estimate due out at year’s end. New Gold said they’ve pinpointed a number of  “high-quality targets” that will see some follow-up drilling in the future.

New Gold president-CEO Patrick Godin said the strong results validate the upside potential that still exists in the area.

“This is our first major drilling campaign since 2017, and it is delivering positive results, confirming that the deposit remains open at depth and along strike, highlighting the potential for additional underground reserves close to existing infrastructure, while shallow drilling of near-surface targets demonstrates the potential for additional open pit reserves.”

The company is so pleased with what it’s seen so far that it’s tacked on another $3 million to this year’s exploration budget for a grand total of $12 million. That translates to an additional 13,000 metres of drilling by year’s end.

Along with its New Afton gold-copper mine in British Columbia, Godin said their focus for the last two years has been about making modest investments and delivering on the operational side. With both operations doing well, the time has come to spend on exploration, “and these results are a strong step in the right direction.”