The start-up of New Gold’s Rainy River gold mine in northwestern Ontario is only weeks away.
The Toronto-based mid-tier miner is putting the finishing touches on the $515 million spent this year to carve out the open pit, dig the tailings area, and commission all of the mechanical systems at the site near the town of Emo, 65 kilometres northwest of Fort Frances.
The company expects to begin processing ore in mid-September with commercial production slated for November.
"We are very much looking forward to Rainy River's targeted startup in the coming weeks," said Hannes Portmann, New Gold’s president-CEO in a Sept. 6 news release.
"We made significant progress in August. Our mining rate increased to over 135,000 tonnes per day, we completed construction of the TMA (tailings management area) start-up cell, and all process facilities are mechanically complete and in testing."
The processing plant underwent a successful test run with low-grade ore, and ball and SAG mills tested up to nameplate capacity. The water management is finished and all the processing facilities are complete. The refining portion of the processing circuit is to be commissioned in mid-September and construction of the tailings management area start-up cell is complete.
Approval for design and construction of creek closures using sheet pile was received from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in August 2017.
