BC’s New Prosperity Inches Forward

Taseko’s Federal Review Could Take A Year

By Greg Klein

November 7 was the deadline, yet supporters and opponents alike were kept on tenterhooks as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency waited until late afternoon Pacific Time to release its New Prosperity decision. Now both sides face up to a year of further uncertainty while the controversial gold-copper mine proposed by Taseko Mines Ltd TSX:TKO for south-central BC works its way through another review.

This marks the third review since the process started in 1993 and the second since November 2010, when a CEAA panel’s report prompted the federal cabinet to reject Taseko’s last proposal, which was called Prosperity. The review largely focused on 118-hectare Fish Lake, which Taseko initially planned for a tailings dump. Taseko’s revised proposal, New Prosperity, moves the tailings two kilometres upstream.

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