The mine is located in the Vila Nova Greenstone Belt, part of the Guiana Shield that covers the northern part of Brazil, parts of the Guianas and extends northwest into eastern Venezuela. Considering the large land package in a geologically permissive setting and the occurrence of several interesting targets, the company is also investigating strategic alternatives for the project.

New Gold announced that it had placed the Amapari mine on care and maintenance on January 2, 2009, due to the depletion of ore suitable for treatment at the existing facilities. Amapari was initially commissioned in 2005. Commercial production commenced in January 2006. The project comprised an open pit mine and heap leach plant for exploitation and processing of gold oxide ore at a capacity of 2.5 Mt/a. Conventional open pit mining techniques using a shovel/truck operation were employed. The heap leach process utilized an on/off heap leach pad, using a stacker and reclaimer.

AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd (AMC) has completed a Scoping Study to assess the potential for mining of sulfide mineral resources and the remaining oxide mineral resources with a new project involving the construction of a two stage ball mill and carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) processing plant. Mining of the sulfide mineral resources has not previously been evaluated in a pre-feasibility study or feasibility study. Amapari has previously disclosed mineral resources containing a total of 1.14 million gold ounces in the measured and indicated categories (22.9 million tonnes at 1.54 g/t Au) of which 63% are in sulfides and 1.04 million gold ounces in the inferred category (13.7 million tonnes at 2.37 g/t Au) of which 93% are in sulfides. Below are the primary parameters used in AMC’s Scoping Study which examines the potential for mining of the sulfide and the remaining oxide mineralization via a combination of open pit and underground mining and processing by conventional milling and a CIL plant.

- Gold price of $US750 per ounce and BRL to US$ exchange rate of 1.90.

- The conceptual mine design and plan assumes extensions to, and deepening of three existing conventional open pits, and an underground mine employing open stoping.

- Steady state production of around one million tonnes per year from open pit mining and 0.5 million tonnes per year from underground mining. Conventional crush-grind-CIL processing achieving 90% recovery. Gold production would average 86,000 ounces per year over the 14 year life of the project, averaging 100,000 ounces per year for the second through ninth year of the project.

-Initial preliminary capital expenditures estimates of approximately $110 million which include engineering, procurement and construction costs for the proposed new mill, open pit, and underground mine development. Life of mine sustaining capital totals $107 million. Operating costs per tonne of ore developed in the study are $8.96 for open pit mining, $17.47 for underground mining, $10.85 and $12.51 for processing of oxides and sulfides respectively and $5.00 for general and administrative costs.

- Life of mine projected cash flow of US$112 million (constant 2009 dollars, before taxes and depreciation) with Net Present Value at 5% discount rate of US$41 million and an Internal Rate of Return of 11 percent. A 10% change in gold price results in differences of about US$90 million in Net Cash Flow and US$60 million in Net Present Value.

This assessment is preliminary in nature, containing inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic consideration applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the preliminary assessment will be realized. AMC has made a number of recommendations for additional work to further assess the potential for development of the sulfide and oxide mineral resource at Amapari including additional drilling to upgrade the classification of the current Inferred mineralization resource inventory to Measured and Indicated status.

Operating Statistics

1. 2005 figures represent 90% of the total production
2. 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 figures represent 100% of the total production