Photo courtesy New Gold

Officials at New Gold are optimistic about meeting production targets for this year at its Rainy River mine.

The mine had its best production quarter with over 66 thousand ounces of gold produced in the last three months.

Chief Executive Officer Patrick Godin expects the trend to continue.

“Production is expected to get stronger in the second half of the year as plant improvement activities are to be completed in the first half of the year with great expected to normalize in Q2,” says Godin.

Godin expects 55 per cent of all gold produced this year to come in the final six months.

The mine is also establishing new safety heights.

Godin says the mine saw no lost time injuries in the last three months and reached 1.6 million hours worked without a lost time injury.

“I strongly believe safety and production are correlated, and our first quarter performance proved this. As a result, we are well-positioned to meet our production and cut guidance set out earlier in the year.”

The mine has also done several improvements to its water management infrastructure.

Production was hindered by flooding last year.

Godin says they have since boosted the pumping system, doubled the pipeline, built open pit diversion channels, and increased the water treatment capacity.