Taseko Shot Down in Bid to Sue Government Over New Prosperity Rejection

Business in Vancouver reported that Canada’s federal court has rejected Taseko Mines Ltd.’s (TSX:TKO,NYSEMKT:TGB) application to sue the federal government for rejecting its British Columbia-based New Prosperity gold-copper mine.

As quoted in the market news:

Taseko’s Prosperity mine – revised as New Prosperity – has been rejected twice by Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA).

Taseko has argued that the CEAA’s decision was fundamentally unfair and based on flawed assumptions. The agency based its decisions on a tailings pond design that Taseko says it was not planning to use. Rather, it was based on a design provided by Nstural Resources Canada, Taseko argues.

After the first mine proposal was rejected in 2010 over concerns about using Fish Lake for tailings storage, Taseko revised its plan to avoid use of the lake. But the revised proposal – the New Prosperity mine – was also rejected over environmental concerns.

Taseko filed for judicial reviews of both decisions and then later asked the Federal Court to convert them into a lawsuit against the Government of Canada.

The Federal Court has rejected that application, but has granted the judicial reviews – something welcomed by the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, which is vehemently opposed to the mine.

Chief Joe Alphonse, tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, said in a press release:

TML trying to convert both judicial reviews into a trial was them gasping for air as their project drowns in Federal rejections and faulty plans.

It says a lot that this company tried to delay the hearing of its own court proceedings by years.  The allegations against the federal government are a last ditch effort. The Tsilhqot’in Nation agrees with the courts that the two judicial reviews should be dealt with separately and in a timely manner.

Click here to read the full Business in Vancouver report.