New Gold announces first quarter results; New Afton’s copper, gold, silver production up

NEWS/ NEW AFTON — Gold production at the New Afton mine was up 83 per cent and copper production almost doubled in the first quarter of the year compared to a year ago.

New Gold, which operates New Afton west of Kamloops, released its first-quarter operational and financial results today.

“Our first quarter results provide us with solid momentum as we look forward to the remainder of 2014, particularly as we continue to expect our strongest quarters to be in the second half of the year,” executive chairman Randall Oliphant said of New Gold’s operations.

New Afton produced 27.4 thousand ounces of gold up to March 31 compared to 14.9 thousand in the first quarter of 2013. Silver production went from 34.8 thousand ounces to 63.8 thousand.

Copper production increased from 11.8 million pounds to 22 million pounds.

New Afton’s continued strong performance offset the planned quarterly decreases in production at the company’s Peak Mines and Cerro San Pedro operations, the report stated.

“New Gold’s consolidated gold production is scheduled to increase steadily through the second half of 2014, with the highest quarterly production of the year planned in the fourth quarter.”

The report noted that in the same quarter last year New Afton was in the midst of its rampup that saw the mill outperform expectations, resulting in the need to process lower grade stockpile ore from the historic Afton open pit.