New Gold Completes $1.2B Business Combination with Western Goldfields

June 1, 2009, New Gold Inc. and Western Goldfields Inc., both Canadian mining companies listed on the TSX and the NYSE Amex, completed a business combination, pursuant to which New Gold acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Western Goldfields on the basis of one New Gold share and $0.0001 for each Western Goldfields share acquired by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement. The market capitalization of the combined company on the closing date was approximately $1.2 billion.

New Gold was represented by Susan Toews, corporate secretary of New Gold, and by a team from Lawson Lundell LLP that included Nathan Daniels and Guy Davis (M&A). New Gold was also advised by Michael Colborne and Michael McLaren of Thorsteinssons LLP on Canadian tax matters, by Christopher Doerksen, Shona Smith and Jennifer Reed of Dorsey & Whitney LLP on US securities law matters, and by Daniel Luchsinger of Covington & Burling LLP on US tax matters.

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted for Western Goldfields with a team that included Cameron Mingay, André Boivin, Eva Bellissimo, Jason MacIntosh and Angela Chu (securities), Stuart English (business law) and Ken Snider (tax). Shearman & Sterling LLP represented Western Goldfields in the US with a team that included Christopher Cummings and Adam Lewinberg (M&A) and Laurence Crouch and Eileen O'Pray (tax). Cassels Brock remains continuing counsel of New Gold following the business combination.