Keeping Watch: Prosperity Mine: Feds May Have Leaked Taseko Prosperity Mine Decision

URL:  http://prosperity-mine-vs-fish-lake.blogspot.com/2010/1...

Massive sell off of Taseko Mine shares (TKO) two weeks before federal announcement likely means someone in federal government leaked the news so that a few lucky investors wouldn't lose everything.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/gh2w

Feds May Have Leaked Taseko Prosperity Mine Decision

Very interesting news out of Ottawa that the Feds may have leaked news of their Prosperity Mine decision about two weeks before the final decision was released.

There is it in mid-October:

Someone saved themselves a spot of cash, not doubt about it!  The thing is, it's easy for regulators to figure out who sold the stocks and started the sell-off, so can't they catch them?

That is the problem with mining: it's a short term game for the financiers, a medium term game for the mining company, and a long term time bomb for the environment.

Taseko Mines says it doesn't know how such a thing could happen. The federal government has tried sidestepping the issue but it's looking pretty stupid in the process. 

Time for an investigation!

RabbleInterview With Chief Marilyn Baptiste

This is a good interview of Xeni Gwet'in Chief Marilyn Baptiste about the Taseko Mines Prosperity Mine project post-Federal decision to nix the mine.

You can get the original here at Rabble.ca. Chief Baptiste is talking about their trip to Vancouver for their land claim appeal in Vancouver on Monday November 22, 2010.

(I tried to post the audio directly here but it didn't work, so you will have to go to Rabble.ca to hear it)

Map of Prosperity MIne location

The map below shows the location of Fish Lake (Teztan Biny in Tsilhqot'in) and the ore deposit. The deposit is under the pattern of trails you can see just to the northwest of the lake.


View Fish Lake on Google Maps in a larger map


Click on the lake and it will open in Google Maps, or use the zoom and pan arrows to look around. Just to the west of here is the First Nations community of Xeni Gwet'in (pronounced "hunny guteen" more or less). The mountains to the west are the Coast Range, and you'll see how close to the end of Bute Inlet via the Hamathko River.


Amazing country. I planted trees in Bute Inlet several years in a row back in the 1980's.

Taseko Mines Sincere About New Mine Proposal?

It is very interesting that Taseko Mines is pondering a new mining proposal for Fish Lake.

After more than a decade of stating categorically (as recently as a week ago on a CBC phone in show) that the only option for their Fish Lake or Prosperity Mine, Taseko Mines has stated that it will look at other options.

I understand this from one point of view, they (or their investors) have spent about 100 million dollars to get this far. There's a lot of pissed off investors out there, and knowing the mining promotion industry this can't feel good to all the joes who sweat it out broadcasting "buy" alerts to their clients.

Ever do a search for "Taseko Mines"? What you get is a whole lot of investment advice (sales advice). Try it, it's amazing just how extensive the results are. Buried in there are other things like news and information, but the vast majority is about selling shares.

Most Taseko Mines search results are from stock promoters

How Sincere Is Taseko Mines?
So just how sincere is Taseko Mines in re-vamping their mine proposal?

My guess is that they want to a) shore up their stock price, and b)sell more shares so they can make share prices climb again. In my last post about Taseko Mines stock plummeting we saw that their stock price has gone all over the map in the last five years.

After all, Taseko has been completely steadfast in their assertion that there was only one way to develop this mine:

Throughout the more than 15 years that this project has been undergoing an environmental assessment, significant First Nations and public interest in preserving Fish Lake has been expressed. Notwithstanding the inherent difficulties of trying to preserve a lake in the midst/immediately adjacent to a plant site/ concentrator and open pit, Taseko has left no stone unturned in trying to find a way to preserve Fish Lake and develop the Project. …

It is not possible to preserve Fish Lake as a viable and functioning ecosystem while at the same time maximizing the full potential of the defined resource. From a mine planning perspective, in order to meet the objective of maximizing the full potential of the mineral resource at Prosperity, mine planners and decisions makers need to contemplate and prepare for the development of a pit that infringes on Fish Lake. (from West Coast Environmental Law website who got it from the Federal Review Panel report.)

So they have left no stone unturned (that's a geologists joke, by the way) in trying to avoid destroying the lake, but they missed one? Sounds like they are putting on their stock promoter's hat.

Marilyn Baptiste, chief of the Xeni Gwet'in band near the proposed mine, stated on a CBC open line show that they would not just jump on board if the lake were not to be destroyed, which is sensible. Who knows what the ramifications would be of another version of the mine.

Could they go underground? avoid open pit altogether? With gold over C$1300  per ounce you'd think that would be a possibility. A lot less tailings to generate acid mine drainage, too.

Here are the latest gold prices from Goldprice.org:

Taseko Mines Stock Price Plummets

Well I have to feel a bit sorry for the shareholders of Taseko Mines after seeing this:

That says it all, doesn't it? I thought this looked pretty bad, but notice it's just this week.

Here is a five year stock chart for Taseko:

Doesn't look so bad really. They've been up and down before.  The discussion now from the business community is around BC not being mining friendly.  My thought is that this is a good message to the mining industry and business in general 

• the land has value all on its own and a mine doesn't necessarily mean a positive return to society, and
• First Nations people count, their opinions and their values count.

Interesting, too, that the Mount Milligan mine has gotten the OK from the federal government. To me that is balance. They say the Mt Milligan mine is designed to minimize damage to the environment, whereas the Prosperity Mine never was. 

Ecological Economics

There has been some good articles on Ecological Economics lately. Ecological Economics isn't just a fancy new term, it's placing a value on the environment to compare with something like a Prosperity Mine. And what it tells us is that an area the size of the Prosperity project does not outweigh the value of a mine, especially when you add in the massive risk of things like acid mine drainage leaking from the lake-cum-tailings pond. 

It is a very human-centered way of looking at the world, but it tells us that the environment provides us with services like clean air, fish, grizzly bears, clean filtered water and so on, and a value can be placed on all of this. 

To my way of thinking, mining companies need to come to grips with this way of thinking. Ensuring a mine's value outweighs (or possibly even improves...) the value of all the services provided for free should be their starting point. Telling society that the mine must be developed or we'll all suffer is old school and blackmail. 

Try Listening Next Time

I like this quote from Marilyn Baptiste on Reuters:

"We hope today's decision will demonstrate the need to find a way forward for industry and governments to work with First Nations from the outset to identify and develop projects that are environmentally and culturally acceptable," said chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation, in a statement.

Good on her.

Feds Turn Down Taseko's Prosperity Mine!

I couldn't believe my ears this afternoon when I heard on CBC radio that the Federal Environment Minister had turned down Taseko Mines' Prosperity Mine proposal!

Congratulations especially to everyone at the Tsilhqot'in National Government and Xeni Gw'etin Band who worked so hard to fight this mine proposal.