TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold miner New Gold this week said it had lifted the National Instrument 43-101-compliant measured resource at its Blackwater project, in British Columbia, by 44% to 3.9-million ounces grading 1.04 g/t.

The company on Thursday said the resource update had also resulted in the direct-processing measured and indicated resource increasing by about 600 000 oz to 8.6-million ounces of gold.

The project also had 260 000 oz of gold in the measured category, for material earmarked for stockpiling to be processed later.

Measured and indicated silver ounces for direct processing also rose by 1.32-million ounces to 57.52-million ounces, of which 21.06-million ounces were classified in the measured category. Material earmarked for stockpiling had 3.5-million ounces in the measured category.

The resource update incorporated 89 new drill holes, including further infill drilling and more refined geologic and geostatistic modelling.

"We are very pleased to now have the Blackwater resource finalised for our feasibility study, which remains on target for completion in late 2013. It is particularly gratifying to see that the classification of the resource has been further upgraded and the grades have increased," executive chairperson Randall Oliphant said.

The current Blackwater mineral resource estimate included 1 002 holes totalling 309 509 m.

New Gold had separated the portion of mineralised material that should be processed directly, which was distinct from that which the company planned to stockpile and process toward the end of the project's mine life.

The company had used a dual cutoff strategy to outline this segregation. Consistent with the previous Blackwater Mineral Resource estimate, all material with a gold-equivalent cutoff of greater than 0.4 g/t was considered for direct processing, while all material with a gold-equivalent cutoff of between 0.3 g/t and 0.4 g/t was directed to stockpiles.

New Gold said it had four drills active on the property and had completed more than 20 000 m this year, exploring for potential extensions to the Blackwater deposit and completing condemnation drilling to test the mineral potential of areas selected for proposed site facilities.

During the second and third quarters, New Gold planned to move the drills to the Capoose exploration prospect, as well as new prospective areas identified within its greater 1 000 km² of mineral claims.

The midtier Canadian gold miner had lifted its 2012 gold production by 6% to 411 892 oz, up from 387 155 oz produced in 2011.