Taseko Mines Ltd. was given the green light Monday to take its proposed New Prosperity gold and copper mine through a second environmental assessment by a
federal review panel.
The $1.5-billion project, planned for a site 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, was rejected by Ottawa last year after a negative environmental assessment of a plan that would have turned Fish Lake into a tailings pond.
The company has since reworked its design to save the lake at an added cost of $300 million in capital and operating expenses to the proposed mine, which was previously expected to cost about
$800 million.
However, the Tsilhqot'in Nation has continued to strongly object to the revised plan.
Marilyn Baptiste, chief of the Xeni Gwet'in, one of the bands in the Tsilhqot'in Nation, said she was disappointed with the decision, announced by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA).
She maintained the revised proposal is even worse than the first one.
"By not draining Fish Lake but severing all life around it, is that mitigating any of the environmental impacts?" Baptiste said.
"It's not much different from the last go around."
Given the setting, Baptiste said a mine is simply a nonstarter. She called the area prime habitat for grizzly, salmon and rainbow trout and is the Tsilhqot'in prime hunting area.
"There is so much at stake there," she said. "It is not acceptable with that project there at all."
The First Nations Summit has a similar position.
"The correct assessments and decisions regarding this failed project have already been made.
"The Prosperity Mine proposal, whether option one or option two, is an environmental disaster waiting to happen and infringes on the title and rights of the Tsilhqot'in Nation", said Chief Douglas White of the First Nations Summit political executive in a statement.
Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice gave the agency one year to conduct its review, including holding public hearings and preparing its report, CEAA said in a statement.
"The Minister of the Environment instructed the agency to design a process that will thoroughly assess whether the proposal addresses the environmental effects identified in the environmental assessment of the original Prosperity project," CEAA said in a statement.
"He also directed the Agency to ensure that information obtained during the previous environmental assessment is used to the extent possible in order to ensure a timely decision."
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.
Taseko did not provide a comment Monday.
