New Gold expands open pit and underground mineralization at Rainy River, Ontario

New Gold Inc. [TSX-NGD; NYSE-NGD] provided an update on its ongoing Rainy River exploration program, northern Ontario. Over the first eight months of 2024, exploration drilling at Rainy River has proven successful in advancing the company’s exploration objectives to expand existing resource envelopes, confirm the continuity of potential new mining zones, and grow the mineralized footprint through new near-mine discoveries. These results are expected to have a positive impact on Rainy River’s mineral resource estimate at year-end 2024 and provide high-quality targets as the foundation of the company’s exploration strategy in the coming years.

“The strong exploration results support our ongoing exploration strategy and confirm the upside potential remaining at Rainy River,” stated Patrick Godin, President and CEO. “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.”

Diamond drilling conducted from surface and from underground confirmed the extension of gold mineralization along strike at Intrepid and down-plunge at the ODM East and 17-East zones of Underground Main (UG Main). In addition, diamond drilling from the connection ramp between Intrepid and UG Main led to the intersection of sulphide-bearing gold mineralization above current underground mining cut-off grade (1.74 g/t AuEq) and minimum mining width (2.4 metres) at the Gap Area target.

Underground Highlights – Intrepid Strike-Extension drilling highlights: 3.26 g/t gold and 7.22 g/t silver (3.32 AuEq) over 7.5 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2011 including 6.09 g/t gold and 9.60 g/t silver (6.17 AuEq) over 1.5 metres core length (1 metre estimated true width); 4.44 g/t gold and 38.05 g/t silver (4.78 AuEq) over 4.3 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2005 including 8.83 g/t gold and 46.90 g/t silver (9.24 AuEq) over 1.5 metres core length (1 metre estimated true width).

ODM East down-plunge drilling highlights: 2.59 g/t gold and 3.10 g/t silver (2.62 AuEq) over 13.50 metres core length (11 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2001 including 5.47 g/t gold and 5.13 g/t silver (5.52 AuEq) over 4.50 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width).

17 East drilling highlights: 4.09 g/t gold and 31.42 g/t silver (4.37 AuEq) over 7.6 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2003B including 8.19 g/t gold and 74.76 g/t silver (8.85 AuEq) over 2.20 metres core length (2 metres estimated true width).

New gold mineralization intersection at Gap Area Target: 3.59 g/t gold over 4.50 metres core length (3 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RRUG24-0007 including 7.65 g/t gold over 1.50 metres core length (1 metres estimated true width).

Completion of the reverse circulation (RC) drilling program confirmed the continuity of near-surface gold mineralization at NW-Trend and 280 Zone, including high-grade gold mineralization intersections at NW-Trend, providing potential opportunities for additional open pit mining.

Open Pit Highlights – NW-Trend near-surface drilling highlights: 4.15 g/t gold and 5.13 g/t silver (4.20 AuEq) over 18.0 metres core length (17 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0020 including 8.47 g/t gold and 10.28 g/t silver (8.57 AuEq) over 8 metres core length (8 metres estimated true width); 2.34 g/t gold and 11.03 g/t silver (2.44 AuEq) over 12.0 metres core length (12 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0022 including 3.47 g/t gold 20.40 g/t silver (3.66 AuEq) over 6 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width).

280 Zone near-surface drilling highlights: 1.20 g/t gold and 0.72 g/t silver (1.21 AuEq) over 32 metres core length (21 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0050 including 3.35 g/t gold and 0.90 g/t silver (3.36 AuEq) over 6 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width).

Following the encouraging results to date, the company intends to allocate an additional $3 million to the 2024 Rainy River exploration program. Following early success in the first quarter, the Rainy River 2024 exploration budget was increased from $5 million to $9 million, as previously reported. The total budget for Rainy River exploration will be increased by an additional $3 million for a total of $12 million for 2024. The increased budget at Rainy River is expected to provide an additional 13,000 metres of drilling by year-end, targeting high priority targets including UG Main (ODM Main, ODM East, 17 East, and 114-Deep), Gap Area, and Intrepid (Figure 1).

“The exploration successes support the company’s approach at optimizing net asset value with modest investment, leveraging existing infrastructure,” added Godin. “Over the past two years, our focus at New Gold has been on operational excellence, project execution, and financial discipline. Both operations are now consistently delivering while we continue to execute on the above priorities, 2024 marks a renewed focus on adding value through exploration and these results are a strong step in the right direction.”

This year marks the first major exploration campaign carried out at Rainy River since mine opening in 2017. As such, several promising targets remain untested. The Rainy River 2024 exploration program is divided into three main components of equal priority: test the potential extension of underground ore zones at depth and along strike; explore the previously undrilled gap between Intrepid and UG Main and follow up on previously drilled near-surface priority targets surrounding the existing Rainy River open pit.

On the first exploration component, diamond drilling conducted from surface and from underground confirmed the extension of gold mineralization along strike at Intrepid and down-plunge at the ODM East and 17 East zones at UG Main.

Diamond drilling conducted from the underground ramp between Intrepid and UG Main intersected new gold mineralization. UG Main and Intrepid deposits are interpreted to occur along the same stratigraphic units. However, the 1,000-metre strike length between the two deposits remained mostly undrilled prior to this year. Borehole RRUG24-0007 intersected gold-bearing sulphide mineralization grading 3.59 g/t gold over 4.50 metres core length (3 metres estimated true width), above current underground cut-off grade and minimum mining width. Additional underground drilling will focus on exploring the extents of this new mineralized area.

The third exploration component is to define near-surface mineral resources with the potential to be mined by open pit methods. On review of historical exploration data and following the successful addition of Phase 5 open pit mineral reserves at year-end 2023, high-quality targets were identified, of which the NW-Trend, or Western Zone, and 280 Zone were prioritized for RC drilling in 2024. The recently completed RC drilling program proved successful in demonstrating the near-surface continuity of the targeted gold-mineralized zones.