By Greg Fry/Chad Klassen

New Gold announces layoffs at its New Afton operation

Feb 1, 2018 | 1:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — A tough couple of days for employees at New Gold’s New Afton operation in Kamloops.

Manager representative Scott Davidson says the company has laid off 28 employees due to a “reorganization.”

“The reorganization is driven largely by the need to focus on the maximization of our cash flow as we discussed recently and the deferral of the development of the C-zone project at this time,” he says. “The restructuring did unfortunately result in the elimination of some positions. As with any restructuring, it’s a very difficult decision, but one that we felt was neccessary at this time.”

New Afton is coming off a record year in 2017 with production of six million tonnes but recently decided to defer C-zone until further analysis is complete.

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He says the decision to issue the layoffs was made “in the last couple of weeks” since New Gold learned of the deferral.

Davidson says he “can’t speak to future plans” in reference to whether or not the 28 people could be hired back at a later date.

With the layoffs, 410 people now work at the site.