Like most mining companies, New Gold is focused on delivering solid returns to its shareholders as the miner prepares to spend the next 14 years mining gold in the Rainy River district.
But what’s equally important for the Vancouver mid-tier is leaving a lasting legacy as a solid corporate citizen and a difference-maker to the small communities in this bucolic corner of northwestern Ontario, said Grant Goddard, the project’s general manager.
“Once we’re gone, what’s
important to us, and one of our measures of success, is that people
say we were a good neighbour and we did a good job when we were
here.”
Goddard is spearheading one of the more advanced-stage
gold projects in Northern Ontario with the development next year of
an (US) $885-million open-pit and underground mine and milling
operation.
The company’s corporate values seem to have resonated with area residents, said Goddard, based on the warm reception he received when he arrived last summer after finishing up development of a Cameco uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan.
“What I find interesting are the comments from the first day I arrived that people see New Gold as being different. We do what we say. We’re focussed on engaging in the community and having their involvement.”
New Gold is the talk of the region for its potential to create immediate jobs for available skilled labour along with long-term next-generation employment in a stagnate area of the North that’s been stung by layoffs in the forest products sector.
Located in Richardson Township, an hour’s drive northwest of Fort Frances, the project contains reserves of 3.8 million ounces of gold and 9.4 million ounces of silver with a measured and indicated resource of 6.2 million ounces of gold and 14.6 million ounces of silver.
With a 21,000-tonne-per-day processing plant, the mine will produce more than 40,000 ounces of gold annually over its 14-year life.
Depending on the final joint federal-provincial environmental assessment approvals process, construction is likely to start in the first quarter of 2015 beginning with the clearing of the site and development of the mine area.
Mill commissioning is set for late
2016,
followed by production in 2017.
The construction jobs over a two-year period are estimated at 400. During production, a maximum of 600 jobs will be in place as the operation transitions from open pit to underground. Indirectly, the mine could create more than 2,000 spinoff jobs.
And there are a multitude of opportunities for area First Nations to be involved.
The company signed an impact benefits
agreement in early October with the Rainy River First Nations and
Naicatchewenin First Nation to ensure their members are involved in
employment, educational and contracting opportunities, and benefit
through a revenue sharing
arrangement.
New Gold followed up with a similar participation agreement in November with the Métis Nation of Ontario with provisions for employment, business opportunities, and training and education, including a Métis scholarship and bursary program established at Lakehead University and Confederation College in Thunder Bay.
“The opportunities for the First Nations are going to be in all aspects, whether it’s directly in business opportunities to service the mine operation or supply the fuel, nuts and bolts, and hard hats,” said Goddard.
As pre-stripping work begins next summer, Goddard said they’ll need skilled workers to run heavy trucks, shovels, drills, plus fill maintenance positions. Then there’s the required technical support to handle the environmental monitoring, grade control geology and mine engineering.
As the project moves toward mill startup in late 2016, they’ll need to staff up that area of the operation.
Engineering and contracting giant AMEC was hired last April to oversee some of the project construction. Goddard said there will be a focus on local involvement in construction and operations whenever possible.
Goddard said there’s a solid workforce base in the district with experience and expertise on the heavy equipment, mechanical and electrical side.
And there are Rainy River district ex-pats who relocated to the Alberta oilsands, because of the local job situation, who still express a desire to live in the northwest.
“I know some want to return. I’ve talked to them,” said Goddard. “There are a lot of people in the area who want to be involved in the project either directly in the operational side or in the service and supply side.”
Since New Gold acquired the project from Rainy River Resources in 2013, the company has placed special emphasis on stakeholder consultation through workshops, open houses and site tours to explain the Mining 101 basics of how the development process will unfold and what training, service and supply opportunities are available.
In listening to landowners, New Gold has fine-tuned its development plans to minimize the operation’s physical and environmental footprint from an aesthetics perspective and to lessen the amount of disturbed land.
When the mine closure plans kicks in by 2031, the site will be cleared of mine infrastructure, local vegetation will be planted, and the open pit and tailings areas will be transitioned into a lake and wetlands.
Goddard said the company’s approach has been fantastic to be a part of.
“I look at the way we operate day to day and it truly is a values-based organization and we really focus on that. What I’m getting from my time in the communities is a real appreciation from people of New Gold and what it’s brought to its approach to mining. It reinforces what I’ve seen which is that we live by our values and are committed to do things the right way.
“New Gold has a series of stated values and we do our best to live up to the values. It’s about doing things the right way and focusing on our integrity and being as transparent as we can in communicating with people.”
