A Tsilhqot’in First Nation chief says his community was “appalled” yesterday, July 17, when it received notice that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had issued a drilling permit to Taseko Mines (TSX:TKO) to conduct “pre-construction exploration” on a mine that has failed twice to get federal approval.
Several Tsilhqot’in communities are battling wildfires, and others have been evacuated, so they have their hands full with more immediate concerns. Even so, Chief Roger William said the Tsilhqot’in plan to immediately file for a judicial review of the decision.
“Our shock is that it’s in the middle of the crisis,” William said.
The permit was issued July 17, on the last day that the Liberal government was still in power.
“It just makes the Liberals look bad,” William said. “Canada said no to the Prosperity mine twice. And here’s a province approving a drilling program in that area. They still need federal approval before that mine goes ahead, so why are they approving it?”
He referred to Taseko’s New Prosperity copper-gold mine, which lies just outside the area that the Supreme Court of Canada recognized in 2014 as being part of traditional Tsilhqot’in territory.
The mine received a provincial environmental certificate. But the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency twice refused to grant the mine an environmental certificate. In the first instance, the CEAA cited concerns about the impacts on Fish Lake. Taseko took the federal government to court, and is still waiting for the Federal Court to make a ruling.
Taseko vice president Brian Battison said the drilling permit is for geotechnical work that is required as part of the Mines Act permitting process. It’s one of the things that has to be done, according to the provincial environmental certificate, within a specified timeframe – by 2020.
“We need to be substantially started the project or that environmental assessment certificate expires,” Battison said. “So we need to do this work.”
The drilling is part of geotechnical work that is needed to better understand the geology of where the mine and mine infrastructure would be built.
Battison said the company had applied for the drilling permit in November 2016 and advised the Tsilhqot’in in July 2016 that the work would be done, once a permit was issued.
“This is not a surprise to anybody that this notice of work was issued,” Battison said. “They were well aware of it that it was coming.”
