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When push comes to shove...
... Taseko representatives will concede that the "New Prosperity" proposal now before a CEAA committee was stated to be WORSE than the plan that was rejected in the first go around. Well, what do you know?
This 14-minute report by CPAC (the Parliamentary news bureau out of Ottawa) is the best so far on this story. Chief Marilyn Baptiste and Grand Chief Phillip do a brilliant job of setting the scene in the first half of the report.
In the second half the reporter holds Taseko's Brian Battison's feet to the fire. Mr. Battison concedes that this is one of the three options looked at before and agrees that he and his engineering VP said at the environmental assessment hearings it would be worse, but he argues that with $300 million they have found ways to mitigate the problems and save the lake. It is worth pointing out, however, that $300M for 'mitigation measures' was in fact part of Option 2 (back when they called it that) and the funds are primarily related to additional costs arising from more distant placement of waste rock - not "mitigation measures".
From the June 2011 project description Exec Summary:
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.
So the $300 M has nothing to do with protecting water quality.This video is well worth watching. Wait for the opening ads to end, then Scroll to 13.53 Share it around. The CEAA is expected to announce whether it will take this so-called 'new' plan to a full environmental review (at huge taxpayer expense) on November 7th.
The link is http://tinyurl.com/6ehx28x
Posted by Admin Tuesday Oct 25, 2011 13:38
Categories: Environment , Fish Lake | Tags: Aboriginal, British Columbia, environment, First Nations, fish, gold, indigenous, lakes, mining, Prosperity, Taseko, Tsilhqot'in, water, Xeni Gwet'in
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