Prosperity mine project a serious threat to Tsilhqot'in

[admin]

Turtle Island Native Network
http://www.turtleisland.org

Taseko's Tactics Demonstrate Why New Prosperity Must Fail
May 1, 2012 - Esk'etemc

Esk'etemc Nation is shocked and disappointed at the Taseko's call to the government to ban any exercise of Aboriginal spirituality during the New Prosperity Federal Panel Review.

The behaviour of Taseko Mines demonstrates a fundamental lack of willingness to understand First Nation's concerns about the effects of the New Prosperity project on Aboriginal rights and title, according to Chief Robbins of Esk'etemc.

"Taseko's call to the Crown to ban First Nation's prayers and ceremonies from the Federal Review Panel is not just offensive to First Nations," says the Chief, "but it is an attempt to belittle the sacred relationship First Nations have with our lands, which provides us with our identity as Aboriginal peoples. It is also another attempt by Taseko to proceed as if we weren't even here."

"At the most basic level" says Chief Robbins, "our ability as First Nations people to survive is dependant on the lands and waters providing us with the necessities of life. How we govern our communities comes from a place of thanksgiving to the Creator for providing us with the lands and resources we need to exercise our rights."

The attempted interference by Taseko with First Nation's participation in the Review, however, is nothing new to the Aboriginal communities involved in the fight to protect their lands and waters from destruction. For Esk'etemc, the comments made by Taseko simply display the reason that the New Prosperity project is doomed to fail from the Aboriginal perspective:
Taseko has again designed the Project without talking to First Nations, and is acting as if First Nations don't exist. The EIS is soon to be due, but Esk'etemc Nation has yet to be asked by Taseko for its views on how the Project will affect its rights.

Says Chief Robbins, "Taseko's approach is based on the false presumption that the Project will not devastate our culture, and will not result in significant losses which cannot be accommodated." Instead, says Chief Robbins, "Taseko is content to ignore the impacts to our ability as Aboriginal peoples to maintain a spiritual connection to our lands and waters, which is integral to our concepts of ownership and the exercise of our rights. There is no honour in that."

[admin]

Tsilhqot'in confident that new Panel's work will result in rejection of "New" Prosperity Mine

TSILHQOT'IN TERRITORY, BC, May 11, 2012

The Tsilhqot'in Nation today reaffirms its position to the newly appointed "New" Prosperity Review Panel that the mine cannot be approved and that the entire credibility of Canada's environmental assessment process hangs in the balance. This version of the mine was already reviewed and rejected by the previous Panel, then called "Mine Development Plan #2", because Environment Canada and the company itself testified that it posed a higher environmental risk than the previous plan and would likely contaminate Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) over time. The mine design does not solve any of the significant impacts found by the previous Panel.

"Although the government did not appoint a First Nations member to the Panel, we recognize that three professionals have been appointed. We are confident that upon scrutiny, that the work undertaken by this new panel will completely confirm the previous panel's findings that this alternative version of the mine poses even greater environmental risk," said Tsilhqot'in National Government Tribal Chair Chief Joe Alphonse, "And will mean the same devastating impacts for our culture and our Tsilhqot'in way of life".

"We trust This Panel will undoubtedly come to understand what it would mean for our culture to have a sacred place destroyed," said Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation. "Yanah Biny and Nabas - where we have homes and graves - are still threatened. Teztan Biny would be surrounded and contaminated by one of Canada's biggest open-pit mining operations."

Chief Alphonse: "The Tsilhqot'in have already proven our Aboriginal rights to this area in one of Canada's longest court battles. We won't back down. No government can stop us from reflecting on who we are and the importance that this area has for us - this isn't residential school."

Chief Baptiste: "We are fighting for our cultural survival. We see this as a major environmental threat to the headwaters of the Taseko Lake and River systems. At stake is the wellbeing of one of British Columbia's salmon runs. The Tsilhqot'in have protected our headwaters and salmon for generations and we won't stop now. Keeping our waters clean and salmon safe is for everybody, not just the Tsilhqot'in."

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires States to consult and cooperate in good faith with indigenous peoples in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories. We expect nothing less as this proposal is a potential extinguishment of our Aboriginal Rights to hunt, trap and fish in a sensitive area at the headwaters of the Taseko River.

Attachment: Ten facts that show why Prosperity Mine proposal cannot be approved

Ten facts that show why resubmitted Prosperity Mine proposal cannot be approved

The CEAA review panel process was very different from the BC EAO rubber-stamp decision. Its 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. Then Environment Minister Jim Prentice described the report's findings as "scathing" and "probably the most condemning I have ever read."

The company knows its new option is worse than its first plan. TML's V.P. Corporate Affairs, Brian Battison, was clear in his Mar. 22, 2010, opening presentation to the CEAA hearings, when he stated: "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."

The point was emphasised by TML's VP of engineering, Scott Jones, who stated: "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."

This proposal does not address the issues that led to the rejection of the first bid last year. Fish Lake will be affected by the toxic waste and eventually die, and it will be surrounded by a massive open pit mine and related infrastructure for decades. The Tsilhqot'in people will not have access to their spiritual place, and the area will never be returned to the current pristine state.

It is not even new. It is "Mine Development Plan 2." TML states on page 20 of its project submission: "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."

This option was looked at and rejected last year by the company, Environment Canada and the CEAA review panel. For example, page 65 of the review report states: "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."

The new $300 million in proposed spending is to cover the costs of relocating mine waste a little further away. There is nothing in the 'new' plan to mitigate all the environmental impacts identified in the previous assessment. TML states in its economic statement: "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." In fact, this new spending is actually $37 million less than the company said last year it would have to spend just to go with the option that it and the review panel agreed would be worse for the environment.

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 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These duties are every bit as clear regarding this resubmitted proposal.

Approving this mine would show the Environmental Assessment process is meaningless, and would demonstrate that governments are ignoring their obligations - as the Assembly of First Nations national chiefs-in-assembly made this crystal clear this summer in their resolution of support for the Tsilhqot'in.

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 Environment Canada, which, as the CEAA report noted last year, also found option 2 to be worse than the original bid.

There are many other more worthy projects to be pursued - the vast majority of which, if not all will require working with aboriginal communities. Natural Resources Canada estimates there is $350 billion-$500 billion worth of such potential projects in Canada. Governments, industry and investors do not need to go backwards by pushing this confrontational proposal and rebuffing efforts by First Nations to find a way to create a better mining system that would benefit everyone in the long run.

For further information:

Chief Marilyn Baptiste: 250-267-1401
Chief Joe Alphonse: 250-305-8282

[admin]

CALL FOR SUPPORT
TSILHQOT'IN PROTEST OUTSIDE OF TASEKO MINES LTD. AGM

Friday, June 1st @ 12:00 noon - 2 pm
837 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories

The struggle to stop Taseko Mines Ltd. (TML) from building a gold and copper mine on unceded Tsilhqot'in Territories continues outside of the TML annual general meeting on June 1st. Tsilhqot'in chiefs and community members will be rallying outside of the meeting and have called for support from their allies as they take a stand to protect their territories, the Taseko watershed and Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from the proposed "New Propsperity Mine".

In the "new" proposal TML has suggested that they won’t drain Teztan Biny or Fish Lake, however the new tailings pond it is planning to build will destroy two other bodies of water that are vital to the survival Teztan Biny. "Fish Lake will still be on life support and die a slower death" says Chief Marilyn of the TNG. It is unimaginable that a company is allowed threaten Teztan Biny in pursuit of a proposal that both the CEAA and Taseko have acknowledged is more environmentally damaging that the proposal that was already rejected last year.

“The company is on record admitting this new option is worse than the one that was rejected last year, and a CEAA review panel has already agreed with that assessment,” said Chief Joe Alphonse, Chair of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which represents six First Nations. “To proceed any further will place an unjustified burden on us and on taxpayers and will demonstrate the excessive influence that this company, its lobbyists and hired guns have on government.”

Allowing this application to be heard the government is also setting a unjust precedent for companies to continually drain the time and resources of communities even when projects have been rejected. The suggestion then is that the ecosystem and rights of indigenous communities can never be protected through the environmental assessment process.

Meanwhile, federal and provincial governments continue to completely ignoring the right for self-determination of Tsilhqot'in communities as well as concerns from CEAA federal panel and the public. The Tsilhqot'in and their allies stood up against government and industry to stop this project over a year ago, and we need to do it again.

JOIN US JUNE 1st! BRING NOISE MAKERS, SIGNS, AND YOUR VOICE!

For more information contact hgrewal@canadians.org / 604 340 2455
Organizer: hgrewal@canadians.org / 604 340 2455

[admin]

Turtle Island Native Network
http://www.turtleisland.org

(Friends of the Nemeiah Valley)

Decision on Tsilhqot'in Aboriginal Title including Fish Lake

On June 27, 2012, the Appeal Court of British Columbia brought down a decision on the appeals of the Vickers judgement on the Tsilhqot'in case for rights and title (Tsilhqot'in Nation vs British Columbia).

The decision in its entirety can be viewed
HERE http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/ ... CA0285.htm

While it appears “the mountains have laboured and brought forth a mouse” (Horace, “Ars Poetica”) when it comes to the matter of Aboriginal Title, there is considerable good from this decision and it is this: the court has upheld in their entirety the rights of the Tsilhqot'in people throughout the claim area as found by the late Mr. Justice Vickers, including the right to capture wild horses for their own use.

It also encompasses the area where Taseko Mine Ltd. (TML) proposes to build its New Prosperity Mine. This judgement has implications for that project and, in our opinion, lends significant weight to the argument that the mine will unjustly infringe upon Tsilhqot'in rights.

The Appeal Court judges also upheld the Vickers decision that the Ministry of Forests wrongly granted forest licenses within the claim area that infringed Aboriginal Rights. As that decision stands, industrial clear-cut logging within Tache Lach'ed (Brittany Triangle) and other areas within the claim area will not occur.

Despite the foregoing, we are deeply disturbed by Mr. Justice Groberman's decison, in which he is supported by Madam Justice Levine and Mr. Justice Tysoe that, in their opinion, Aboriginal Title had not been proved and that Mr. Justice Vickers erred in finding it had. Instead, they have chosen to adopt a regressive view of aboriginal title to which we take strong exception. This is the minimalist position on aboriginal title that demands proof of continuous occupation and settlement, including things like permanent dwellings and cultivated gardens, that is quite at odds with the way of life of Tsilhqot'in people prior to 1846. This colonial point of view needs to change as it is an untenable view that should be overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Response from the Tsilhqot'in National Government and other First Nations groups was swift and direct. From the TNG Press Release issued shortly after the ruling, “..... the Court’s regressive attitude on the meaning of Aboriginal title creates uncertainty for all Canadians. We will take this key issue to the Supreme Court of Canada. This is a fundamental question for all First Nations,” said Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet’in.

“The BC Court of Appeal does not have the final word on this issue. All of our First Nations will support the Tsilhqot’in in their ongoing efforts for justice,” said BC Assembly of First Nations Chief Jody Wilson Raybould. “What led to this was industry trying to come into the Brittany Triangle for our resources, and to infringe on our Aboriginal rights from clear-cut logging. Many of our Elders who speak only Tsilhqot’in testified in this process. Many are no longer with us, and this ongoing fight is in honour of all of our Elders and future generations,” said Councillor Roger William from Xeni Gwet’in.

The Tsilhqot'in National Government media release can be read in full HERE. FONV will continue to support the Tsilhqot'in people in their struggle for a just solution to the matter of Aboriginal Title. Canada will not be a proper nation until it resolves this issue fairly and justly throughout the land. It is most unfortunate that this Appeal Court decision fails to advance the matter after labouring for twenty months.

http://fonv.ca/

[admin]

MiningWatch Canada Report Flags Significant Risks and Uncertainties Associated with Taseko Mines Limited

OTTAWA, ONTARIO

September 13, 2012

MiningWatch Canada has released a report on Taseko Mines Ltd. that cautions investors about the significant risks and uncertainties that investments in the mid-tier mining company could be exposed to given the company's continued expenditures and efforts to advance its controversial New Prosperity Gold-Copper Project. These include:


1. Taseko's New Prosperity Project continues to face major challenges in
obtaining necessary environmental approvals.
2. The New Prosperity does not have and is unlikely to get a social licence
to operate from the affected First Nations communities and Aboriginal
governments.
3. The New Prosperity capital and operating cost estimates do not include
key factors that will affect the economic viability of the project and
share price volatility is likely to continue;
4. Political support from provincial and federal governments for the New
Prosperity Project is uncertain.
5. The fierce opposition to this project from Aboriginal peoples and
environmental organizations may result in lengthy litigation and could
have implications for the future of other extraction projects in BC.

The New Prosperity Project represents 55% of the company's reported net assets and is currently in the environmental assessment process. An earlier attempt to obtain environmental assessment approval for the Prosperity project was rejected by the federal government, and in February 2011, Taseko resubmitted the project with some changes under the name "New Prosperity". A second environmental assessment is currently underway.
The proposed New Prosperity Project is on the traditional territory of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation and the transmission line for the project will cross the traditional territories of a number of Secwepemc First Nation communities. All the affected First Nation governments as well as the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and Assembly of First Nations strongly oppose the mine.

MiningWatch will be sending their report to key analysts and shareholders in Taseko Mines Ltd. including the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board which CPP holds 1.4 million shares in Taseko worth approximately $4.1-million.

The full report is available at: http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/investor-alert-TKO


Contacts:
MiningWatch Canada
Ramsey Hart
(613) 569-3439

[admin]

Tsilhqot'in Nation Elder and Former Alexis Creek First Nation Chief Supports New Prosperity Mine
Based on Responsible Water Management

REDSTONE RESERVE, BC, Sept. 20, 2012

Ervin Charleyboy, statesman within the Tsilhqot'in Nation and former chief of the Alexis Creek Nation, lent his voice of support to Taseko Mines Limited's New Prosperity mine project today. Once a vocal and central opponent to the previous "Prosperity" project in 2010, Charleyboy has stated that, following his review of the water management plan contained in Taseko's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), he believes sufficient environmental mitigation measures are now in place.

"I couldn't support that project back when the plan was to eliminate Fish Lake," says Ervin Charleyboy. "I looked at the jobs and the money that might come from the mine for my community, but the loss of that lake was too great a cost. I was the leader of our nation back then. It wasn't a good position to be in, to have to turn down opportunities when there wasn't anything else out there. But it was the right decision at the time."

Taseko Mines has a new plan in front of the Federal government called New Prosperity. Under the new plan, Fish Lake will be preserved and a number of measures have been taken to ensure the surrounding Fish Creek watershed will remain in tact throughout the mine's operation. These plans are summarized in a video that Taseko Mines has developed as well as in the Executive Summary of the EIS, both of which are available on the project's website.

"This new mine plan solves the problem we faced by saving Fish Lake," continues Charleyboy. "That's what we asked for last time around. I have been able to see Taseko's plans for the mine as it relates to Fish Lake - the scientific plans that the government has now - and it is clear to me that this company has come up with a solid solution.

"When I think of what's out there for our young people in this region, I feel discouraged," concludes Charleyboy. "They need some opportunities, they need work, and they need training. With Fish Lake preserved now, I'm encouraging young people to support the New Prosperity mine, because it offers all those things. We can't turn our backs on opportunities like this."

About the First Nations Youth Council:

The Youth Council is a volunteer organization of young people, mentored by Ervin Charleyboy, who are seeking to better their futures through work experience, job shadowing, education, and training.

SOURCE: First Nations Youth Council

For further information:
Ervin Charleyboy
Founder, First Nations Youth Council
250-302-9958
ervincharleyboy@hotmail.com

[admin]

Tsilhqot’in Leaders and Communities fully opposed to “New” Prosperity Mine

News Release posted on behalf of the Alexis Creek First Nation

Ervin Charleyboy does not speak for the Tsilhqot’in Nation

Alexis Creek BC (October 2, 2012): Today the elected Chief and Council of the Alexis Creek First Nation (“Tsi Del Del”), one of the six Tsilhqot’in communities, called on Taseko Mines Ltd. to halt its desperate tactics that are being employed to promote its 3rd attempt to obtain federal approval for its proposed copper and gold mine at Teztan Biny (Fish Lake).

In recent interviews and news releases, Taseko Mines and the former Alexis Creek Chief Ervin Charleyboy have emphasized Charleyboy’s support for the “new” Prosperity Mine proposal. The news releases show that Taseko Mines has close ties with Charleyboy; in fact, in a press release issued by Charleyboy he praises Taseko Mine’s water management plans – plans that had yet to be publicly released or even provided to the Tsilhqot’in Chiefs.

“With all due respect to the long years of service from Ervin Charleyboy, he is neither a spokesperson nor an elected representative of the Alexis Creek First Nation or the Tsilhqot’in Nation. The Alexis Creek First Nation is opposed to the mine, and takes exception to Ervin’s attempts to portray young band members working on a fish habitat project for Ervin as a “youth committee” and an endorsement of the company’s mine proposal,” said Alexis Creek Chief Percy Guichon.

“The Tsilhqot’in people have spoken loud and clear: they do not want a project of this size, with such environmental risk and in an area as important as Fish Lake. We welcome other opportunities to develop mining projects in less sensitive areas, but the Tsilhqot’in Nation is fully opposed to this project,” said Tsilhqot’in Nation Tribal Chair Chief Joe Alphonse.

Chief Alphonse: “Ervin is free to speak his mind. He is entitled to his opinion. But he should not be confused as a spokesperson for our communities. He is not. There is overwhelming opposition in our communities to this mine, and it is shameful that the company is stooping to quoting one individual’s support in its press releases.”

Chief Guichon: “The Tsilhqot’in are participating in good faith in the federal environmental panel review. We are confident that this new Panel will see through the company’s desperate tactics and its version of the mine already deemed worse for the environment. What is clear to us from all of this is that Taseko Mines Ltd. lacks a social license to operate, and is desperate enough to seize on individuals acting alone to advance an illusion of community support.”
- - -

Previously reported: viewtopic.php?p=15726#p15665

[admin]

TIME FOR TASEKO MINES TO ADMIT MINE PLAN WON'T WORK

Panel Finds Major Deficiencies with New Prosperity Proposal

Williams Lake B.C: Dec 12, 2012: The independent Panel reviewing the controversial New Prosperity mine project has told Taseko Mines Limited that major deficiencies with the proposal must be addressed before the Panel can consider proceeding to public hearings, but Tsilhqot'in National Government is calling on the company to stop wasting everyone's time and withdraw its obviously shoddy proposal.

"We agree with the Panel," said Tsilhqot'in National Government Tribal Chair Chief Joe Alphonse, "Government regulators also said that the company has not backed up its claims that it can somehow 'save' Teztan Biny in the middle of an open-pit mining operation. Our position is that this proposal does not stand up, it will not save Teztan Biny and it would still mean the same devastating impacts for our culture and our communities".

"Only weeks after its Prosperity proposal was rejected, this company started claiming it could now save Teztan Biny and deal with all the impacts that doomed the last proposal," said Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation, "Well, the Panel and the governments have now said there are serious deficiencies in those claims. It seems to us that the company has put its efforts into pushing through a second proposal as fast as it can, without doing the homework to see if it can actually back up its proposal".

Taseko Mines Ltd., by its own admission, has spent many years and more than $100 million of investors' dollars working on this project, despite being advised of serious concerns with the project in 1995 by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Governments and the Tsilhqot'in Nation, among other First Nations, have exhausted valuable time and finances to deal with a failed, destructive massive open pit proposal to process low grade ores.

With all these years of work to draw on, and a clear set of instructions provided in February as to what information was needed, the company submitted a draft EIS several months ago that federal and provincial regulators found widely deficient in a scathing letter that listed almost 250 criticisms of missing, false, poorly written and illegible information.

Rather than seriously address all these concerns, the company submitted a quickly revised EIS on September 27, 2012. Several federal and provincial departments again identified major deficiencies with the EIS, several relating to the company's claims that it could save Teztan Biny. The Panel itself has now identified major deficiencies. When the Panel identified a serious issue with the EIS two weeks ago and asked Taseko Mines Ltd. to address it, the company responded by saying the Panel was wrong and the company did not have to fix the deficiency. The Panel ordered the company again to address the deficiency.

The attached analysis by MiningWatch Canada summarizes deficiencies in the EIS identified by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, Health Canada , Natural Resources Canada, Transport Canada (TC), and the BC Ministries of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Energy and Mines and Natural Gas, and the Environment.

Given that the BC government approved the first Prosperity Mine proposal, and that Premier Christy Clark has supported the new bid and even called for the original federal rejection to be over turned, it is telling that even the province's own ministries are critical of the company's latest proposal.

Responses on the Project Registry also include a critique of Taseko Mines' assessment of First Nations impacts by Ms. Ehrhart-English, who was hired by the company to prepare its Aboriginal cultural heritage study for the area in the 1990s. In her statement to the Panel, the company's own expert states, "Little Fish Lake is the area in which most of the traditional activities have taken place ... I am very surprised that they would attempt to propose to place a tailings pond on ... one of the most important cultural areas in the entire ... study area".

"It is time for TML to stop wasting our time and money, taxpayers' money and its own investors' dollars and walk away from this project. Had it done that when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans raised serious concerns in 1995, we would all be much better off today. As it stands now, they are making a mockery of the environmental assessment process," said Chief Alphonse.
Media contacts:

Chief Joe Alphonse, Tribal Chair: 250-305-8282
Chief Marilyn Baptiste, Xeni Gwet`in: 250-394-7023

Attached: MiningWatch Canada summary of and links to responses to Taseko Mines second EIS (http://www.miningwatch.ca/sites/www.min ... _dec_6.pdf)

J.P. Laplante

Mining, Oil and Gas Manager

Tsilhqot'in National Government

253 4th Ave North, Wiliams Lake BC V2G 4T4

Tel: 250-392-3918

Fax: 250-398-5798

Email: jlaplante@tsilhqotin.ca

TSILHQOT'IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
253 - 4th Avenue North ??Williams Lake, BC V2G 4T4 ??Phone (250) 392-3918 ??Fax (250) 398-5798