Taseko, the company behind the the New Prosperity Mine, has issued a statement saying they will continue with a federal judicial review about the project.
The federal government announced Wednesday that the mine, slated to be built near Williams Lake, cannot proceed.
The proposed billion-dollar mine is one of Canada’s largest undeveloped copper-gold projects.
Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, said in a statement Wednesday night that the mine project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects that cannot be mitigated.
In a statement on Thursday, Taseko said they “fundamentally disagree with the decision the federal government has made and believes they based their decision on a panel report, which contains serious flaws. New Prosperity can be built to a high standard of environmental integrity, including the full protection of Fish Lake.”
The judicial review, which started in December, challenges the panel findings in the decision.
“We are not alone in our disappointment,” said Russell Hallbauer, president and CEO of Taseko. “Many others, including the Government of British Columbia and the thousands of Cariboo residents who have worked hard to support New Prosperity will be similarly discouraged. We thank each of them for the confidence they have placed in us and wish to assure them that our commitment to the Cariboo remains strong. We will continue to support the excellent work of our 700 employees at Gibraltar, Canada’s second largest open pit copper mine and the largest employer in the Cariboo region.”
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“At the invitation of the federal government in 2010, Taseko committed $300 million to address the concerns from the first panel review and submitted a new proposal,”Hallbauer added. “After a second lengthy and costly federal review, the federal government has once again stood in the way of the development of an important project to British Columbia.”
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The reaction in Williams Lake has been mixed. Some residents and business owners expressing disappointment, while others saying the federal government made the right decision.
“When we looked at the Prosperity project, we saw lots of opportunity,” said Kerry Cook, the Mayor Williams Lake. “Opportunity not only for hundreds of new jobs in our community, but for an increase supply in the service sector, for many many training opportunities, building the capacity of our people, which is such an important priority.”
“And so with the no decision, there’s certainly a feeling in that we’ve lost a great deal of opportunity.”
Speaking on Unfiltered with Jill Krop Thursday night, the MP for Cariboo-Prince George Dick Harris, said the news of the rejection Wednesday night was a “huge blow” to the people of that area who wanted the project to go ahead.
“When Taseko announced today that this wasn’t the end of the story, that’s a glimmer of hope,” he said. “But it’s just such a shame that the decision was made the way it was, it came out the way it did, and people were expecting that they were going to see a mine getting started here pretty soon, but that’s not going to happen for a while now.”
Harris also said he agrees with the fact that the report from the panel contains “major flaws.”
“If all of the expertise that I’ve been given by preeminent engineers in this very field is true, and I have no reason to doubt them, then the government is in very tough on this one and the ramifications of Taseko being proved right could be very embarrassing,” said Harris.
WATCH: Talking New Prosperity Mine on Unfiltered:
Chief Joe Alphonse from the Tsilhqot’in Nation said as far as they were concerned this was a case of David vs. Goliath.
“Huge news,” he said. “We’ve tried to work with this company all along, and you know, they refused to work with us in a respectful and honourable way, so the federal government made the right decision.”
Taseko said it will also look at other opportunities to increase shareholder value.
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