New Gold Places the Amapari Mine on Temporary Care and Maintenance
VANCOUVER, BC - New Gold Inc. reported Amapari Mine in Brazil on temporary care and maintenance.
Robert Gallagher, New Gold's President and Chief Executive Officer stated: "We had hoped to mine and process oxide ores through the third quarter of 2009, but efforts to maintain recent improvements in production and costs with the increasing amounts of hard transition ore and waste in the Amapari pits have been unsuccessful. While significant resources remain at Amapari, the additional capital required to maintain economic production levels and the limited remaining oxide reserves justifies the decision to place the mine on care and maintenance."
New Gold has determined that it would be more cost-effective to process the remaining oxide ore (including transition material) with the underlying sulphide resource in a new process facility. New Gold is preparing a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") to exploit this resource with a conventional crush/grind/CIL mill. It is expected that this study will be completed in the first quarter of 2009. New Gold will also investigate other strategic alternatives for the Amapari operation.
In the meantime, mining at Amapari is being suspended immediately. The leaching of stacked material is expected to continue until it is no longer economic to do so. The operation will be placed on care and maintenance pending the results of the PEA. All environmental monitoring and on-going remediation programs will continue during this period and beyond, as will on-going exploration programs on New Gold's concessions at Amapari.
VANCOUVER, BC - New Gold Inc. reported Amapari Mine in Brazil on temporary care and maintenance.
Robert Gallagher, New Gold's President and Chief Executive Officer stated: "We had hoped to mine and process oxide ores through the third quarter of 2009, but efforts to maintain recent improvements in production and costs with the increasing amounts of hard transition ore and waste in the Amapari pits have been unsuccessful. While significant resources remain at Amapari, the additional capital required to maintain economic production levels and the limited remaining oxide reserves justifies the decision to place the mine on care and maintenance."
New Gold has determined that it would be more cost-effective to process the remaining oxide ore (including transition material) with the underlying sulphide resource in a new process facility. New Gold is preparing a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") to exploit this resource with a conventional crush/grind/CIL mill. It is expected that this study will be completed in the first quarter of 2009. New Gold will also investigate other strategic alternatives for the Amapari operation.
In the meantime, mining at Amapari is being suspended immediately. The leaching of stacked material is expected to continue until it is no longer economic to do so. The operation will be placed on care and maintenance pending the results of the PEA. All environmental monitoring and on-going remediation programs will continue during this period and beyond, as will on-going exploration programs on New Gold's concessions at Amapari.