Court battle continues over proposed mine

The Tsilhqot'in Nation will seek an injunction of its own to prevent exploration work from proceeding in the vicinity of the proposed Prosperity gold and copper mine 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.

The move follows a request for an injunction the mine's developer, Taseko Mines Ltd., filed two weeks ago to prevent Tsilhqot'in members from obstructing the work.

Both applications will be heard on Monday at the Law Courts in Vancouver.

"Taseko Mines Ltd argued in court earlier this month when the injunctions battle began that it would be doing work on an area that is already dead because of the pine beetle," the Tsilhqot'in said in press release issued Friday. "In fact, however, the Little Fish Lake area that is the target of planned roads and drilling is a vibrant, thriving area."

The $1.5-billion project was rejected by Ottawa last year after a negative environmental assessment of a plan that would have turned Fish Lake (called Teztan Biny in the Tsilhqot'in language) into a tailings pond. However, the proposal is to go through a second review after the company reworked its design.

Taseko said the new design will save the lake at an added cost of $300 million in capital and operating expenses.

However, the Tsilhqot'in Nation has continued to strongly object to the revised plan saying it's worse than the original proposal.

Also at issue are the permits Taseko received from the provincial government allowing the company to do such work as road-building, drilling, excavation of test pits and timber clearing.

"The Tsilhqot'in are seeking an injunction to prevent exploration work from proceeding, and we have a separate application before the courts for a judicial review of the B.C. permits granted for the work, which we believe were illegal and must be revoked or suspended," said Tsilhqot'in Tribal Chair Joe Alphonse.

Taseko has estimated the project would create 700 construction jobs for two years and 550 direct jobs and 1,280 indirect jobs over its 20 year operating life.

In addition to the Prosperity project, Taseko owns a 75 per cent stake in the Gibraltar mine near Williams Lake and several other development stage projects in B.C.