New Gold

CORRECTION: This article initially referred to reported attacks against three villagers of Cerro de San Pedro. It has now been confirmed that while there have indeed been some confrontations there has as yet been no physical violence against opponents of the mine.

MONTREAL – Controversy continues to embroil Canadian New Gold Inc. (TSX:NGD) and its Cerro de San Pedro mining operation as the November 2nd press release issued by its public-relations firm Peak Communicators Ltd. regarding a recent ruling of the Mexican Federal Tribunal of Administrative and Fiscal Justice is put into question.

The Canadian mining map was produced by the Halifax Initiative during the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries. The Roundtables, which took place between June and November of 2006, fulfilled one of the recommendations made in the groundbreaking report, Mining in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility, tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) in June 2005.

Mike Boylan visited the community of Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí, Mexico on November 7 and 8, 2006, where the unlicensed activities of Minera San Xavier, a subsidiary of Metallica Resources, threaten to destroy the community. He witnessed and documented rapid activity of heavy machinery in preparation to begin large scale blasting and both heard and felt explosions coming from the mine site. The mine is clearly progressing with its activities while lacking legal clearance, access rights to land and environmental permits.