Refreshing New Gold’s Values
For Nick Wade, a mobile maintenance general supervisor at New Gold’s New Afton Mine in Kamloops, British Columbia, the employee-led refresh of the company’s Values meant expanding his perspective and challenging the norm.
“What I enjoyed about the process was working with my colleagues from various departments and backgrounds that provided a different lens to look through,” said Nick. “This meant we challenged the tendency for like-minded thinking.”
With a strong health and safety culture, boosted gold and copper production, significant free cash flow generation, and millions of dollars invested in exploration, New Gold’s position inspired company leadership to examine the culture that facilitated it, and that would enable its future growth and success.
“We paused to think about how our Values have evolved along with our company,” said Patrick Godin, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We knew that this wasn’t something to be decided in a boardroom, but with employees across New Gold.”
In October 2024, a project team met with employees from all corners of the business, comprising diverse roles, age groups, genders, and varying lengths of service with the company, to identify and capture the qualities that represented both New Gold today, and the company’s potential.
“It wasn’t a top-down list handed to us,” said Michelle Buchanan, a mine operations administrative assistant at New Afton Mine. “Hearing different perspectives made me realize how much we all care about the same things, even if we express them differently—it makes our culture feel more authentic and aligned.”
In the workshops, employees shared stories they felt exemplified New Gold, capturing moments that demonstrated their work at its best. The project team analyzed the more than 30 stories, comparing themes, shared language, and countless commonalities between the operations despite the thousands of kilometers between them. In the end, new Values statements emerged from the feedback, providing a series of guiding principles made memorable with the employee-generated acronym ‘I CARE’:
- Innovation to make things better
- Collaboration as one company
- Accountability for our shared success
- Respect for all people
- Excellence at every step
“Participating in these workshops makes us as employees feel valued and heard,” added Katelynn Jack, a support miner at the Rainy River Mine near Emo, Ontario. “I appreciate that we were given the opportunity to share our thoughts on what our Values are and what we think can improve.”
In March this year, Patrick, along with Vice President of Human Resources Dan Sharkey and Corporate Communications Manager Sam Numsen, traveled to both mines, hosting more than a dozen in-person meetings to share the New Values with employees and make the connection directly to New Gold’s updated Vision and Mission.
“What was powerful was hearing how the Values reflect not only where employees see themselves and the company today, but what they aspire to be in the future,” said Dan. “This change is beyond words and posters—it’s really in the way we work, and what we expect of ourselves and our colleagues.”
With clear understanding of and alignment with the new Values, employees across the company are poised to deliver on the promise of New Gold and build the future together.
