New Gold Inc. (TSX: NGD) (NYSE American: NGD) is pleased to provide an update on its ongoing Rainy River exploration program. Over the first eight months of 2024, exploration drilling at Rainy River has proven successful in advancing the Company’s exploration objectives to expand existing resource envelopes, confirm the continuity of potential new mining zones, and grow the mineralized footprint through new near-mine discoveries. These results are expected to have a positive impact on Rainy River’s mineral resource estimate at year-end 2024 and provide high-quality targets as the foundation of the Company’s exploration strategy in the coming years.

“The strong exploration results support our ongoing exploration strategy and confirm the upside potential remaining at Rainy River” stated Patrick Godin, President and CEO. “This is our first major drilling campaign since 2017, and it is delivering positive results, confirming that the deposit remains open at depth and along strike, highlighting the potential for additional underground reserves close to existing infrastructure, while shallow drilling of near-surface targets demonstrates the potential for additional open pit reserves.”

Underground Zones Extended Along Strike and at Depth, New Gold Mineralization Intersected between Intrepid and Underground Main

Diamond drilling conducted from surface and from underground confirmed the extension of gold mineralization along strike at Intrepid and down-plunge at the ODM East and 17-East zones of Underground Main. In addition, diamond drilling from the connection ramp between Intrepid and UG Main led to the intersection of sulphide-bearing gold mineralization above current underground mining cut-off grade (1.74 g/t AuEq) and minimum mining width (2.4 metres) at the Gap Area target.

Underground Highlights¹

• Intrepid Strike-Extension drilling highlights:

• • 3.26 g/t gold and 7.22 g/t silver (3.32 AuEq) over 7.5 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2011 including:
    • 6.09 g/t gold and 9.60 g/t silver (6.17 AuEq) over 1.5 metres core length (1 metre estimated true width)
  • 4.44 g/t gold and 38.05 g/t silver (4.78 AuEq) over 4.3 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2005 including:
    • 8.83 g/t gold and 46.90 g/t silver (9.24 AuEq) over 1.5 metres core length (1 metre estimated true width)

• ODM East down-plunge drilling highlights:

• • 2.59 g/t gold and 3.10 g/t silver (2.62 AuEq) over 13.50 metres core length (11 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2001 including:
    • 5.47 g/t gold and 5.13 g/t silver (5.52 AuEq) over 4.50 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width)

• 17 East drilling highlights:

• • 4.09 g/t gold and 31.42 g/t silver (4.37 AuEq) over 7.6 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RR24-2003B including:
    • 8.19 g/t gold and 74.76 g/t silver (8.85 AuEq) over 2.20 metres core length (2 metres estimated true width)

• New gold mineralization intersection at Gap Area Target:

• • 3.59 g/t gold over 4.50 metres core length (3 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RRUG24-0007 including:
    • 7.65 g/t gold over 1.50 metres core length (1 metres estimated true width)

Continuity of Near-Surface Zones Confirmed, Supporting the Potential for Additional Open Pit Mineral Resources

Completion of the reverse circulation drilling program confirmed the continuity of near-surface gold mineralization at NW-Trend and 280 Zone, including high-grade gold mineralization intersections at NW-Trend, providing potential opportunities for additional open pit mining.

Open Pit Highlights¹

• NW-Trend near-surface drilling highlights:

• • 4.15 g/t gold and 5.13 g/t silver (4.20 AuEq) over 18.0 metres core length (17 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0020 including:
    • 8.47 g/t gold and 10.28 g/t silver (8.57 AuEq) over 8 metres core length (8 metres estimated true width)
  • 2.34 g/t gold and 11.03 g/t silver (2.44 AuEq) over 12.0 metres core length (12 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0022 including:
    • 3.47 g/t gold 20.40 g/t silver (3.66 AuEq) over 6 metres core length (6 metres estimated true width)

• 280 Zone near-surface drilling highlights:

• • 1.20 g/t gold and 0.72 g/t silver (1.21 AuEq) over 32 metres core length (21 metres estimated true width) in Borehole RC24-0050 including:
    • 3.35 g/t gold and 0.90 g/t silver (3.36 AuEq) over 6 metres core length (4 metres estimated true width)

Rainy River Exploration Budget Increased by Another $3 Million to the End of 2024, to Follow Up on the Positive Results

Following the highly encouraging results to date, the Company intends to allocate an additional $3 million to the 2024 Rainy River exploration program. Following early success in the first quarter, the Rainy River 2024 exploration budget was increased from $5 million to $9 million, as previously reported. The total budget for Rainy River exploration will be increased by an additional $3 million for a total of $12 million for 2024. The increased budget at Rainy River is expected to provide an additional 13,000 metres of drilling by year-end, targeting high priority targets including UG Main (ODM Main, ODM East, 17 East, and 114-Deep), Gap Area, and Intrepid (Figure 1).

“The exploration successes support the Company’s approach at optimizing net asset value with modest investment, leveraging existing infrastructure,” added Mr. Godin. “Over the past two years, our focus at New Gold has been on operational excellence, project execution, and financial discipline. Both operations are now consistently delivering while we continue to execute on the above priorities, 2024 marks a renewed focus on adding value through exploration and these results are a strong step in the right direction.”

Rainy River Exploration Drilling Results

This year marks the first major exploration campaign carried out at Rainy River since mine opening in 2017. As such, several promising targets remain untested. The Rainy River 2024 exploration program is divided into three main components of equal priority:

1. Test the potential extension of underground ore zones at depth and along strike.
2. Explore the previously undrilled gap between Intrepid and UG Main.
3. Follow up on previously drilled near-surface priority targets surrounding the existing Rainy River open pit.

On the first exploration component, diamond drilling conducted from surface and from underground confirmed the extension of gold mineralization along strike at Intrepid and down-plunge at the ODM East and 17 East zones at UG Main. At Intrepid, new drill intersections locally extend the mineralized envelope by approximately 100 metres towards the east, which has the potential to add underground reserves and increase the gold ounces per level. At UG Main, five boreholes intersected gold mineralization at a depth of up to 850 metres below surface, extending the resource envelopes down-plunge and confirming continuity of existing ore zones. All zones remain open at depth. The new diamond drilling results are expected to have a positive impact on underground resources at year-end.

Additionally, diamond drilling conducted from the underground ramp between Intrepid and UG Main intersected new gold mineralization. UG Main and Intrepid deposits are interpreted to occur along the same stratigraphic units. However, the 1,000-metre strike length between the two deposits remained mostly undrilled prior to this year. Borehole RRUG24-0007 intersected gold-bearing sulphide mineralization grading 3.59 g/t gold over 4.50 metres core length (3 metre estimated true width), above current underground cut-off grade and minimum mining width (Figure 3). Additional underground drilling will focus on exploring the extents of this new mineralized area. All new notable diamond drilling intercepts from Intrepid, ODM East, 17 East, and Gap Area exploration programs are summarized in Tables 1 and 3, and Figure 1 below.

The third exploration component is to define near-surface mineral resources with the potential to be mined by open pit methods. On review of historical exploration data and following the successful addition of Phase 5 open pit mineral reserves at year-end 2023, high-quality targets were identified, of which the NW-Trend, or Western Zone, and 280 Zone were prioritized for RC drilling in 2024. The recently completed RC drilling program proved successful in demonstrating the near-surface continuity of the targeted gold-mineralized zones. High-grade gold intersections at NW-Trend confirms the continuity of high-grade gold zones intersected in historical diamond boreholes. At 280 Zone, several gold-mineralized intersections over 10 metres wide within the first 100 metres below surface confirmed the up-dip continuity of deeper gold zones intersected in historical diamond boreholes. While the economic viability of these targets is currently under evaluation, further extension of open pit mining has the potential to defer reclaim of the low-grade stockpile and improve the long-term gold production profile. All notable results from the RC drilling campaign are summarized in Tables 2 and 4, and Figure 2 below.

Table 1: Notable Exploration Drilling Results at Rainy River Underground^{1, 2}

Table 2: Notable Near-Surface RC Drilling Results at Rainy River^1,2

Table 3: All New Exploration Diamond Drilling Location and Orientation at Rainy River

Table 4: Drilling Location and Orientation of Rainy River RC Drilling

About New Gold

New Gold is a Canadian-focused intermediate mining company with a portfolio of two core producing assets in Canada, the Rainy River gold mine and the New Afton copper-gold mine. The Company also holds other Canadian-focused investments. New Gold’s vision is to build a leading diversified intermediate gold company based in Canada that is committed to the environment and social responsibility.

Figure 1: Notable Drill Intercepts at Rainy River Underground (CNW Group/New Gold Inc.)

Figure 2: Notable RC Drilling Intercepts at 280 Zone and NW-Trend (CNW Group/New Gold Inc.)