A federal review panel tasked with assessing Taseko Mines’ (TSX:TKO) controversial New Prosperity project used incorrect information in its final report, the company claimed November 6.
Taseko’s accusation comes less than a week after the review panel concluded that New Prosperity, a large-scale copper-gold project located southwest of Williams Lake, would cause “several significant adverse environmental effects” if built.
The panel’s report was published October 31. Hearings regarding the project were held in August.
At the heart of Taseko’s challenge is its assertion the panel used an inaccurate design, provided by Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), of the mine’s tailings facility.
The design from NRCAN, Taseko claimed, would result in significant seepage from the tailings facility into nearby Fish Lake because it did not include a liner to restrict the movement of the tailings.
Taseko’s model, on the other hand, includes a liner made of packed glacial tilt – compact, fine soil.
“Will our mine design work? Yes it will,” said Brian Battison, vice-president of public affairs at Taseko.
“We’re so confident that we’ll invest more than one billion dollars in it. We don’t just hope to come to the parameters we set out in our design. We meet them.”
In its report, the federal review panel found that Taseko underestimated the volume of seepage from the tailings pond into Fish Lake. The tailings would negatively affect both the water quality and fish and fish habitat in the lake, the panel concluded.
New Prosperity has been reviewed twice. In 2010, Ottawa rejected the project because Taseko claimed it had to drain Fish Lake in order to build its tailings facility.
After that initial rejection, Taseko reworked its design and moved the tailings pond two kilometers upstream, saving Fish Lake. The redesign added $300 million to the cost of the project. If built, New Prosperity would cost $1 billion.
The B.C. government has supported the construction of the mine since 2010.
The Tsilqot’in National Government (TNG), a First Nations council representing five communities in the area of New Prosperity, has long opposed the construction of the mine.
After the panel’s October 31 report, Joe Alphonse, chief of the TNG, told Business in Vancouver that New Prosperity would never be a sound environmental project, regardless of what Taseko says. If it were, the review panels would have endorsed it.
“We have to move forward and get past this project,” he said.
The only honourable thing for Taseko to do is to call the government and withdraw.”
According to Battison, Knight Piesold, an engineering firm contracted to work on the New Prosperity project, discovered the alleged discrepancy.
A request for comment from Knight Piesold was declined.
In an email to Business in Vancouver, Lucille Jamault, communications manager for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), said the agency would not comment on the report.
Natural Resources Canada also declined to comment.
New Prosperity is considered the country’s largest undeveloped copper-gold project with an estimated 5.3 billion pounds of copper and 13.3 million ounces of gold.
The CEAA is currently reviewing the panel’s report. It has 120 days from publication of the report to make a decision on the fate of New Prosperity.
For more Business in Vancouver coverage on this issue, click here and here.
