VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Following significant delays and budget blowouts, miner New Gold has finally poured first gold at its $1-billion-plus Rainy River project, in Ontario, the company reported on Friday.
The TSX- and NYSE American-listed miner said the first pour yielded about 500 oz of gold and 600 oz of silver.
The Rainy River operation started processing ore on September 14, processing about 290 000 t of ore since then.
Including four days of intentional downtime as part of the commissioning plan, this translates to an average processing rate of almost 14 000 t/d, or 67% of the 21 000 t/d nameplate capacity.
At the same time, the mining rate through September has continued to track on plan, which has enabled the mine to deliver the scheduled quantities of ore to the mill, the company advised.
The company's TSX-listed equities rallied a hair under 4% on Friday to C$4.97 apiece.