Vanderhoof, B.C. – New Gold and the Blackwater Project will be celebrating a milestone in Vanderhoof today.

Over the last three years, 500,000 work hours have been performed at the Blackwater site and there has been no lost time incidents and two years without without a single reportable incident.

All of this despite the fact the Blackwater site is only accessible by roads frequented by logging trucks or by air, and experiences temperatures as low as -47 degrees and as high as +40 degrees.

It is also located in a potential wildfire location which was under threat of evacuation in 2014.

In recognition of this achievement, New Gold has been cited by the Top Safety Cultures Award Program.

The program celebrates and enables the creation of safer workplaces and enhanced safety cultures for employees across Canada.

In celebration of the company milestone New Gold has announced a donation of $5,000 to the Nechako Valley Search and Rescue to support emergency response services.

“I’m so proud to be part of this community and working with the community,” says Tim Bekhuys, director of the Blackwater Project. “Really at New Gold we see it’s our responsibility to get every worker home safe and we really couldn’t have done this without the expertise and commitment of the local people in the region.”

Located approximately 160 km southwest of Prince George and 110 km southwest of Vanderhoof, Blackwater will employ between 1,200 and 1,500 workers during the construction of the mine and 500 workers to operate the mine once construction is complete.