The Taseko Mines saga to construct the New Prosperity gold and copper mine has likely, finally, come to an end with a Supreme Court of Canada decision Thursday to reject a company appeal.
The 12-year effort to construct an open-pit mine began with a proposal that involved turning Fish Lake — a place sacred to the Tsilhqot’in Nation — into a tailings pond. That proposal was rejected by a federal review panel, but approved by the province of B.C. The company then made revisions to the project design to avoid draining Fish Lake, dubbing it the ‘New’ Prosperity Mine, in 2011.
The project has been declared dead and then alive again several times over but the Supreme Court decision may signal the final nail in the mine’s coffin.
Here’s a timeline of events leading up to Thursday’s legal ruling.
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Annie Williams, former chief of the Xeni Gwet’in band, holds the Nemiah Declaration of 1989. She, along with elders, lawyers and others, was instrumental in formalizing the document, which helped lead to the Tsilhqot’in’s precedent-setting 2014 victory in the Supreme Court decision that gave them rights and title to much of their traditional lands. Photo: Louis Bockner. Illustration: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal
