VANCOUVER – A controversial proposal for a massive copper and gold mine in British Columbia will get another chance to become reality after Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency agreed to a second review of it.
Taseko Mine’s (TSX:TKO) original proposal for the mine failed the federal government’s first environment review process, but the company has now launched what it’s calling its New Prosperity proposal.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent instructed the agency to set up a process that will review the environmental concerns raised in the past assessment and consider the mining company’s changes.
With higher, longer-term prices of copper and gold, Taseko says it would spend an extra $300 million on the project to address the main concerns of the last environmental rejection.
Several Interior First Nations oppose the project because the original mine proposal would see the destruction of Fish Lake, considered culturally significant for First Nations.
The mine site, southwest of Williams Lake in B.C.’s Cariboo region, is one of the largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits in Canada and Taseko says it’s prepared to invest more than $1 billion in the project.
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