Taseko deal not a sign of support: chief

Tsilhqot’in allows tests

The Tsilhqot’in National Government has agreed to allow Taseko Mines to run tests on the site of its proposed New Prosperity mine because it is confident the results will show that the new proposal still harms Fish Lake and not because it in any way supports the project, TNG’S Chief Joe Alphonse said.

In November 2010, Taseko had its first proposal for the mine, then called Prosperity, rejected by the federal government because of its plan to drain a trout- filled Fish Lake to use as a tailings pond. Taseko is now in the process of submitting a revised plan that the company says saves Fish Lake by building a tailings pond two kilometres upstream.

But Alphonse says, given the geography of the area, the tailings pond is still likely to seep into Fish Lake and harm the trout, and the tests should prove that.

The mine site is on top a very steep mountain and it’s all bedrock, Alphonse said.

“So we don’t believe the claims they are making [ that the lake won’t be harmed] and their test results are going to prove our position,” he said.

And the agreement with Taseko to allow the tests in no way suggests that the TNG is now ready to accept the project, Alphonse said.

Beneath Fish Lake is Taseko Lake, which is full of chinook, sturgeon and sockeye, he said. And a short river feeds directly into the Chilco Lake run.

“So there’s huge fish potential obstruction,” Alphonse said.

“Our economy as first nations people is the salmon that we pull out of the waters.”

And that salmon is part of a “very very fragile system they’re playing with,” Alphonse said.

“What’s the benefit of having a huge financial injection into our economy for only 20 years” if it affects the salmon? Alphonse asked.

The TNG isn’t against all mining. There is a smaller mine operated by Amarc Resources where a number of TNG members work, Alphonse said.

But the New Prosperity mine “is the wrong project, it’s the wrong company, it’s the wrong time as far as we’re concerned,” Alphonse said.

“We know there’s going to be a huge battle coming down the pipe,” Alphonse said. “Along the way you’re going to lose a couple of battles here and there and I guess this is one of them. We don’t want to get engaged in a big huge battle yet.”

But Taseko is confident neither Fish Lake nor any salmon runs will be affected.

The first environmental assessment has already found that salmon will not be affected, Taseko’s vice- president of corporate affairs Brian Battison said.

And with respect to Fish Lake, that will be one of the key aspects of the upcoming assessment.

“So it will be our task in the environmental assessment to demonstrate that the lake can be preserved,” he said. “And we intend to be able to prove that we can preserve the lake and the ecology that the lake creates and supports.”

The government has said it will make a decision on Taseko’s New Prosperity proposal before the end of the year.