The license allows for approximately 60
drill holes in Nabas (where the mine would be located), 24 km. of
road/trail to be built, 1500 cubic metres of wood to be cut and a
“disturbance area” of 13.3 ha.
In response to this, TNG has issued the following statement which has been sent to appropriate levels of government:
TŜILHQOT’IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
253 – 4th Avenue North Williams Lake, BC V2G 4T4
Phone (250) 392-3918 Fax (250) 398-5798
Tsilhqot’in Statement of Commitment to protect the land that sustains us and our future generations
Williams Lake, BC: November 2, 2011: Today marks the anniversary of the
Federal Government’s decision rejecting the Prosperity Mine proposal and
protecting the environment, waters, fish and fish habitat, grizzly and
grizzly habitat and our constitutionally protected rights as First
Peoples in our homelands. Once again, we thank the Minister of
Environment Jim Prentice and the Federal Government for protecting the
public interest and for upholding the rights of First Nations under the
Canadian Constitution.
Unfortunately, this dire threat to our people, our lands and our way of
life as Tsilhqot’in people continues to this day. The proponent has
already submitted a proposal for “New” Prosperity, a mine alternative
that it has described in the past as even more environmentally damaging.
At the same time, British Columbia recently issued approvals that
authorize the proponent to extensively drill, build roads and clear
trees throughout this area of such critical importance to our people.
The Tsilhqot’in Nation considers the approvals issued by British
Columbia unlawful because of the Province’s failure to meaningfully
consult or accommodate our Nation or to justify the impacts on our
proven Aboriginal rights to hunt and trap throughout those lands. We
remain confident that the Federal Government will continue to do the
right thing and once again reject this clearly unacceptable mine
proposal.
On this, the anniversary of our successful defence of the lands and
waters that sustain our people and our culture, the Tsilhqot’in Nation
stands united in its sacred commitment to our ancestors and to our
future generations – we will honour and we will protect the lands that
give us life.
30-
Media Enquiries: JP Laplante, TNG Mining, Oil and Gas Manager - 250-392-3918
Attached to this Statement are TEN REASONS WHY THE PROSPERITY MINE BID WILL FAIL:
Investors hoping to cash in on Taseko Mines Ltd’s second Prosperity Mine
bid should think back a year. Despite assurances from the company and
its president that it would proceed, the company’s original bid was
soundly rejected by the federal government and share prices plunged.
Once again, there is a proposal before the federal government’s Canadian
Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the company’s president is
saying he is confident it will be approved.
And once again the federal government has no choice but to reject it. Here are 10 reasons why.
1. The company knows its new option is worse than the one that was
rejected last year. Here are just two quotes that show it knows it
cannot save Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) – only prolong its death throes:
`
`Developing Prosperity means draining Fish Lake. We wish it were
otherwise. We searched hard for a different way. A way to retain the
lake and have the mine. But there is no viable alternative. The lake and
the deposit sit side by side. It is not possible to have one without
the loss of the other.” - Brian Battison, V.P. Corporate Affairs,
Taseko Mines Ltd. Opening Presentation at the CEAA Review Panel
Hearings, March 22, 2010
“What happens to the water quality in Fish Lake, if you try and
preserve that body of water with the tailings facility right up against
it, is that over time the water quality in Fish Lake will become
equivalent to the water quality in the pore water of the tailings
facility, particularly when it’s close.” Scott Jones, V.P. Engineering, Taseko Mines Ltd. Panel Hearing Transcript, CEAA Reg. Doc#2253, v.29, p. 5450
2. The CEAA review panel report was not almost the same as the BC EAO
rubber-stamp decision. Not even close. The CEAA review panel report
found immitigable, devastating impacts to the local fish stocks and
endangered grizzly populations, and to the existing and future rights of
the Tsilhqot’in and its youth. The problems were so serious that then
Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice described the report’s findings
as
“scathing” and
“probably the most condemning I have ever read.”
3. This is not a new proposal and does not address the issues. It is
Mine Development Plan 2, which the company reject lasted year, and which
the federal review panel rejected in its report:
“The Panel agrees
with the observations made by Taseko and Environment Canada that Mine
Development Plans 1 and 2 would result in greater long-term
environmental risk than the preferred alternative.” Federal Review Panel Report, p. 65
4. TML states on page 20 of its new project description that it is
submitting the previously rejected second alternative. Quote:
“Option
2 is the basis for the New Prosperity design …The concepts that lead to
the configuration of MDP Option 2 have been utilized to develop the
project description currently being proposed.”
5. The new $300 million in spending is not for previously unheard of
mitigation to make this alternative acceptable. TML states in its
Project Description:
“The new development design, predicated on
higher long term prices for both copper and gold, would result in a
direct increase in capital costs of $200 million to purchase additional
mining equipment to relocate the tailings dam and to move the mine waste
around Fish Lake to new locations. This redesign also adds $100 million
in direct extra operating costs over the 20-year mine life to
accomplish that task.”
6. The federal government is required under the Constitution to protect
First Nations, which have been found to be under serious threat in this
case, and is internationally committed to do so under the United Nations
Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This resubmitted plan
places even more onus on the federal government to live up to these
duties.
7. To approve this mine would show the EA process is meaningless, and
would demonstrate that governments are ignoring their obligations - as
the Assembly of First Nations made clear this summer in a national
resolution of support for the Tsilhqot’in.
8. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has opposed this
project since it was first raised in 1995. It soundly rejected it again
last year. It has no reason to support it now, nor does the Ministry the
Environment, which, as the federal Panel report notes, found last year
that Option 2 would be worse than the original bid.
9. In our view, the project cannot get federal approval. The question is
will it be rejected on Nov. 7 when CEAA announces next steps, or will
be first have to go through a pointless, costly and divisive new review.
10. Natural Resources Canada estimates
there are $350 billion - $500 billion worth of potential projects on
lands that involve aboriginal Title, claims and rights. It makes no
sense for governments, industry and investors to back this bad,
confrontational proposal and rebuff efforts by First Nations to find a
way to create a better mining system.
Hello All Friends of Friends of the Nemaiah Valley.
