New Gold Reports Consolidated Reserve & Resource Statements
A consolidated summary of total gold, silver and copper contained within New Gold’s global mineral reserves and resources is provided in the table below.
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New Gold Mineral Reserves & Resources Summary as of December 31, 2008
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Contained Metal
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Gold Silver Copper
M oz M oz M lbs
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Reserves(1)(3)-(6)
Proven 2,427 49,929 931
Probable 2,394 4,753 1,819
-------- -------- --------
Total P&P 4,821 54,682 2,750
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Resources(2)(7)-(13)
Measured 4,437 63,284 2,025
Indicated 3,528 5,574 1,612
-------- -------- --------
Total M&I 7,965 68,858 3,637
Inferred 1,793 1,679 361
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Notes to the mineral reserve and resource statements are provided in a
separate table below.
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Further details of New Gold’s mineral reserves and resources for its mines and development projects are provided below and are also available in the respective NI 43-101 Technical Reports referenced below.
Mineral Reserves
The updated mineral reserve statements for the Peak and Cerro San Pedro mines have been calculated based on long-term metal prices of
Updated mineral reserve statements for the Peak and Cerro San Pedro mines are presented in the table below:
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Mineral Reserve Statement - Peak and Cerro San Pedro Mines as of
December 31, 2008
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Metal Grade Contained Metal
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Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Silver Copper
000's g/t g/t % Koz Koz M lbs
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Peak Mine(1)(3)(13)
Proven 1,048 3.96 - 0.95 133 - 22
Probable 2,557 4.60 - 0.96 380 - 54
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Peak P&P 3,605 4.41 - 0.96 514 - 76
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Cerro San Pedro
(1)(4)(13)
Proven 69,640 0.55 22.3 - 1,231 49,929 -
Probable 2,054 0.52 22.9 - 34 1,512 -
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
CSP P&P 71,694 0.55 22.3 - 1,266 51,441 -
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Notes to the mineral reserve statements are provided in a separate table
below.
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The updated mineral reserve statement for the Peak Mines represents a 40% increase in total contained gold and a 175% increase in total contained copper over mineral reserves reported previously in a
The updated mineral reserve statement for the Cerro San Pedro mine represents a 17% decrease in both contained gold and silver over mineral reserves reported previously in a
Mineral reserve statements for the company’s 100% owned New Afton and 30% owned El Morro development projects are presented in the tables below.
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Mineral Reserve Statement - New Afton and El Morro Projects
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Metal Grade Contained Metal
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Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Silver Copper
000's g/t g/t % Koz Koz M lbs
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New Afton(1)(5)(13)
Proven - - - - - - -
Probable 44,400 0.72 2.30 0.98 1,028 3,240 959
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
New Afton P&P 44,400 0.72 2.30 0.98 1,028 3,420 959
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El Morro(1)(6)(13) 100% basis 30% basis
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Proven 62,542 0.53 - 0.66 1,062 - 909
Probable 72,528 0.41 - 0.50 951 - 806
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
El Morro P&P 135,070 0.46 - 0.58 2,013 - 1,715
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Notes to the mineral reserve statements are provided in a separate table
below.
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The mineral reserve statements for the New Afton and El Morro projects have been reported previously in NI 43-101 Technical Reports completed in
Mineral Resources
Updated mineral resource statements for the Peak, Cerro San Pedro and Amapari mines and the New Afton and El Morro development projects, inclusive of mineral reserves, as of
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Mineral Resource Statement as of December 31, 2008
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Metal Grade Contained Metal
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Measured &
Indicated Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Silver Copper
Resources 000's g/t g/t % Koz Koz M lbs
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Peak(2)(7)(13)
Measured 2,405 3.75 - 1.02 290 - 54
Indicated 3,694 4.71 - 1.00 559 - 82
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Peak M&I 6,099 4.33 - 1.01 849 - 136
Cerro San Pedro
(2)(8)(13)
Measured 90,160 0.55 20.6 - 1,597 59,557 -
Indicated 6,370 0.46 18.7 - 94 3,830 -
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
CSP M&I 96,530 0.54 20.4 - 1,691 63,387 -
Amapari(2)(9)(13)
Measured 8,700 1.03 - - 288 - -
Indicated 14,249 1.85 - - 848 - -
------- ------- -------
Amapari M&I 22,949 1.54 - - 1,136 - -
New Afton(2)(10)(13)
Measured 43,250 0.83 2.68 1.12 1,154 3,727 1,068
Indicated 22,410 0.66 2.42 0.84 476 1,744 415
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
New Afton M&I 65,660 0.77 2.59 1.02 1,630 5,471 1,483
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El Morro(2)(11)(13) 100% basis 30% basis
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Measured 211,164 0.54 - 0.65 1,108 - 903
Indicated 347,242 0.46 - 0.49 1,551 - 1,115
------- ------- ------- ------- -------
El Morro M&I 558,406 0.49 - 0.55 2,659 - 2,018
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Inferred Tonnes Gold Silver Copper Gold Silver Copper
Resources(12) 000's g/t g/t % Koz Koz M lbs
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Peak Mines 2,713 4.50 - 0.90 388 - 52
Cerro San Pedro 1,658 0.47 24.1 - 25 1,283 -
Amapari 13,716 2.37 - - 1,045 - -
New Afton 7,940 0.88 1.6 0.96 225 396 168
El Morro 62,335 0.18 - 0.34 110 - 141
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Notes to the mineral resource statements are provided in a separate table
below.
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The updated measured and indicated mineral resource statement for the Peak Mines represents an approximate 3 to 5 % increase in total contained gold and an approximate 15 to 20% increase in total contained copper over mineral resources reported previously in a
The updated measured and indicated mineral resource statement for the Cerro San Pedro mine represents an approximate 17% decrease in both contained gold and silver over mineral resources reported previously in a
The updated measured and indicated mineral resource statement for the Amapari mine represents an approximate 11% increase in total contained gold over mineral resources reported previously in a
The mineral resource statements for the New Afton and El Morro projects have been reported previously in NI 43-101 Technical Reports completed in
The Qualified Persons as defined under Canadian NI 43-101 responsible for the preparation of the Mineral Reserve and Resource Statements presented herein are listed below:
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Qualified Persons for New Gold Mineral Reserve & Resource Statements
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Peak Mines
Reserves Mr. Eric Strom, P.Eng. and Technical Services Superintendent
for Peak Mines Ltd.
Resources Mr. Rex Berthelsen, Member AusIMM and Principal Geologist
for New Gold Inc.
Cerro San Pedro Mine
Reserves Mr. William L. Rose, P.E. and Principal Mining Engineer for
WLR Consulting, Inc.
Resources Mr. William L. Rose, P.E. and Principal Mining Engineer for
WLR Consulting, Inc.
Amapari Mine
Resources Mr. Rex Berthelsen, Member AusIMM and Principal Geologist
for New Gold Inc.
New Afton Project
Reserves Mr. Mike Thomas, Member AusIMM and Principal Mining
Consultant for AMC Consultants Pty Ltd.
Resources Mr. David Rennie, P. Eng. and Consulting Geological Engineer
for Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Assoc.
El Morro Project
Reserves Mr. Richard J. Lambert, P. E. and Principal Mining Engineer
for Pincock, Allen & Holt Inc.
Resources Mr. Barton G. Stone, P. Geo. and Chief Geologist for
Pincock, Allen & Holt Inc.
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Notes to Mineral Reserve & Resource Statements
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1) Mineral reserves are contained within measured and indicated mineral
resources. Measured and indicated mineral resources that are not
mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
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2) Mineral resources for all mines and development projects have been
estimated using industry standard three-dimensional geostatistical
block model estimation methods (e.g. one or a combination of ordinary
kriging, multiple indicator kriging or inverse distance to an
exponential power) constrained by geological and metal grade domains
in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining,
Metallurgy and Petroleum and National Instrument 43-101, or the
AusIMM JORC equivalent.
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3) Peak Mines mineral reserves have been calculated based on a gold
price of US$750/oz, a copper price of US$2.00/lb and variable lower
NSR cut-offs ranging from AUD$112/t to AUD$130/t that vary between
individual mines and their proximity to the Peak operation processing
facility.
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4) Cerro San Pedro mineral reserves have been calculated based on a gold
price of US$750/oz, a silver price of US$10.00/lb and a lower NSR
cut-off of US$2.64/t.
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5) New Afton mineral reserves have been calculated based on a gold price
of US$475/oz, a copper price of US$1.45/lb and a lower NSR cut-off of
CAD$15/t of ore.
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6) El Morro mineral reserve tonnes and grade are reported on a 100%
basis; contained metals are reported on a 30% basis to reflect New
Gold's 30% ownership interest in the project. Mineral reserves have
been calculated based on a gold price of $500/oz, a copper price of
US$1.25/lb and a lower cut-off of 0.30% copper-equivalent ("EqCu")
where
EqCu(%) = Cu(%) + 0.592 x Au (g/t) and
Cu(%) = percent copper,
Au (g/t) = grams per tonne gold
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7) Peak Mines mineral resources have been estimated based on a gold
price of US$750/oz, a copper price of US$2.00/lb and variable lower
NSR cut-offs ranging from AUD$85/t to AUD$95/t that vary between
individual mines and their proximity to the Peak operation processing
facility.
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8) Cerro San Pedro mineral resources have been estimated based on a gold
price of US$1000/oz, a silver price of US$21/oz and a lower grade
cut-off of 0.2 g/t gold and are constrained within an economically
constrained "mineral resource pit" that uses the same cost and metal
recovery parameters used to define mineral reserves as of
December 31, 2008.
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9) Amapari mineral resources have been estimated based on a gold price
of US$750/oz and a variable lower grade cut-offs ranging from 0.6 g/t
to 0.8 g/t gold for open pit oxide and sulphide resources and 1.7 g/t
gold for underground sulphide resources that vary between individual
mineral resources and their proximity to the Amapari operation
processing facility.
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10) New Afton mineral resources have been estimated based on a gold price
of US$450/oz, a silver price of US$5.25/oz, a copper price of US
$1.20/lb and a lower NSR cut-off of CAD$10.00/t of mineralized
material.
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11) El Morro mineral resource tonnes and grade are reported on a 100%
basis; contained metals are reported on a 30% basis to reflect New
Gold's 30% ownership interest in the project. El Morro mineral
resources have been estimated based on a gold price of US$500/oz, a
copper price of US$1.25/lb and a lower grade cut-off of 0.3%
copper-equivalent ("EqCu") where
EqCu(%) = Cu(%) + 0.592 x Au (g/t) and
Cu(%) = percent copper,
Au (g/t) = grams per tonne gold
Mineral resources are based on an economically constrained "mineral
resource pit" that uses the same cost and metal recovery parameters
used to define mineral reserves as described in the May 2008
NI 43-101 technical report for the project.
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12) Inferred mineral resources are not known with the same degree of
certainty as measured and indicated resources, do not have
demonstrated economic viability, and are exclusive of mineral
reserves.
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13) Numbers may not add due to rounding.
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New Gold is an intermediate gold mining company with operating assets in
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain information contained in this press release, including any information relating to New Gold’s future financial or operating performance, may be deemed “forward looking”. All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that New Gold expects to occur, are “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “does not expect”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “does not anticipate”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “budget” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could”, “should” or “might” occur. All such forward looking statements are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond New Gold’s ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause New Gold’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation: the results of the preliminary economic assessment assessing the viability of a new process facility at Amapari; New Gold’s operations are subject to significant capital requirements; fluctuations in the international currency markets and in the rates of exchange of the currencies of
CAUTIONARY NOTE TO U.S. READERS CONCERNING ESTIMATES OF MEASURED,
INDICATED AND INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCES
Information concerning the properties and operations of New Gold has been prepared in accordance with Canadian standards under applicable Canadian securities laws, and may not be comparable to similar information for
SOURCE New Gold Inc.
