Combined, they formed a $1.6 billion mid-tier mining company with 3.2 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves.

The company had been founded in 1980 as DRC Resources Corporation, headquartered in Vancouver, to investigate previously explored mineral properties in Canada for their exploitation potential.

In 2005, the company sold its other assets to pursue the Afton project as it had emerged as a viable prospect for profitably developing, and they changed their name to New Gold Inc.

Metallica had acquired the property in 1995 for exploration purposes but they had struggled through its development phase in resolving environmental impacts and navigating the Mexican legal system to have its permits enforced.

Similar to the other original companies, Western Goldfields was interlisted on the American and Toronto stock exchanges and was transitioning to become an operating gold producer.

[10] The American company, which had moved its headquarters to Toronto in 2006, had acquired the old Mesquite Mine in Imperial County, California in 2003.

Throughout 2011 New Gold acquired three TSX Venture Exchange-listed mineral exploration companies: Richfield Ventures Corp., Silver Quest Resources Ltd., and Geo Minerals Ltd. All three had exploration rights in the Blackwater area, west of Quesnel, British Columbia, and New Gold would pursue it as a development project.

In those few years, they sold their 30% stake in the El Morro project in Chile to Goldcorp for $90 million plus 4% of its future gold production,[15] the Cerro San Pedro deposit had been depleted, the Rainy River achieved commercial production, and they sold the Peak Mine project to Australian mining company Aurelia Metals Limited for $58 million.

While the company completed its environmental assessment phase of their Blackwater gold-silver project in central British Columbia,[16] they sold the development project to TSX Venture Exchange-listed Artemis Gold for C$190-million in cash, an 8% stream on future production, and shares in Artemis Gold.