CBC reported this morning that the submission, which includes the company’s plans to manage and minimize environmental impacts of the project, will form the core of the material reviewed by three-member panel assessing the project.

 

“We are committed to the responsible development of New Prosperity,” Taseko president and chief executive Russell Hallbauer said in a statement.

 

“The final steps in the federal environmental assessment process – an examination of those components of the project that have changed or that are new from the previous project proposal – can now be undertaken.”

 

Taseko is looking to build an open pit gold-copper mine approximately 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, B.C.

 

The Tsilhqot'in National Government has strongly opposed Taseko’s gold and copper mine project, saying the development will kill Fish Lake, preventing access to a place of spiritual importance.

 

Taseko’s original proposal involved draining Fish Lake and using it for a tailings pond. Earlier this year the company resubmitted the proposal, saying it would spend an extra $300 million to address concerns and promised to save Fish Lake, which band members say is culturally significant to them.

 

But the Tsilhqot’in said the tailing ponds associated with New Prosperity would still destroy bodies of water in the Fish Lake area. According to Chief Marilyn of the Tsilhqot'in National Government (TNG), which represents six First Nations, “Fish Lake will still be on life support, and die a slower death.”

 

The company was ordered to rewrite its environmental impact statement earlier this year after the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency concluded a draft was riddled with gaps, deficiencies and missing information.

 

Taseko said last year the project would have a significant impact on B.C.’s economy, generating some 71,000 jobs over a 20-year mine life and feeding $5.52 billion into provincial coffers.