New gold, rainy river gold mine.

• Position: Dialogue with New Gold Incs Grant Goddard - Interview

T ike 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-clay 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...