Taseko Mines Ltd. has been granted a five-year extension on its environmental assessment certificate for the New Prosperity Mine Project.
The proposed open-pit gold-copper mine in the Chilcotin, located near Fish Lake, some 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, has been controversial for years.
First Nations in the area oppose the project, which has twice been rejected by the federal government on environmental and cultural grounds, most recently in February 2014. The province’s B.C. Liberal government supports the project.
The extension was granted by Environment Minister Mary Polak on Jan. 14.
In a news release, Taseko, which operates the Gibraltar Mine 150 km north of 100 Mile House, says people of the Cariboo-Chilcotin will benefit from the development of the Prosperity deposit.
“This is truly a world-class deposit capable of making a lasting contribution to British Columbia and Canada,” states Russell Hallbauer, president and CEO of Taseko Mines Ltd.
“It deserves special effort now to make it a reality. We will continue to work with governments at all levels and with our First Nations neighbours to find ways to shape the project and move it forward in a manner that delivers the greatest possible value to the broadest number of people.”
Chief Joe Alphonse, Tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government and Chief of Tl’etinqox, is one of the project’s fiercest critics.
“No matter what, this project is dead,” Alphonse states in a news release.
“The Tsilhqot’in are the only First Nation in Canada that have proven aboriginal title in the courts. The extension of this certificate should be illegal. Denying this extension would have shown respect in regards to our title negotiations with the province.”
The province’s environmental assessment process is a means of reviewing major projects and assessing their potential environmental, economic and social impacts.
Meanwhile, Taseko is seeking to combine two ongoing judicial reviews, which assert the federal government’s most recent decision to reject the project was badly flawed, into one civil suit demanding damages from the federal government.
That application was heard in federal court on Oct. 22. A judgement has yet to be delivered.
