Login / RegisterVancouver protesters slam Taseko’s proposed Prosperity gold mine near Williams Lake
A local activist is urging Taseko Mines not to proceed with its proposed Prosperity gold and copper mine that would turn Fish Lake, near Williams Lake, into an impoundment reservoir for toxic waste-rock.
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“Taseko Corp. wants to build a gold mine by destruction,” Ivona Vujica of Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance told the Straight during a noon vigil today (September 2) close to Taseko’s offices in downtown Vancouver. “It is predicated on the destruction of Fish Lake, which is on Chilcotin [Tsilhqot’in] First Nation territory. It is their land and it is their homeland. If the Fish Lake is destroyed, the Chilcotin First Nation are going to lose their homeland, and where are they going to go?”
Shortly after the vigil ended, 12 environmental groups sent out a joint press release calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to save Fish Lake, which they said is home to 80,000 rainbow trout and sacred to the Tsilhqot’in.
Ivona Vujica on the proposed Prosperity mine.
The groups are urging the federal government to heed the findings of its own environmental assessment review panel, which on July 2 concluded that the mine would have a “significant adverse effect” on fish habitat and First Nations in the area. The panel also concluded that there could be a “significant adverse cumulative effect” on grizzly bears in the South Chilcotin region and fish habitat generally.
In June, the B.C. government issued a 25-year mining lease to Taseko for the Prosperity project.
Vujica and the groups listed in the release, including Sierra Club B.C. and Canadian Boreal Initiative, are expecting the Harper government to reveal its decision on the mine’s future as soon as September 10.
Vujica said First Nations in the area are opposed to the project. The proposed open-pit mine is on the traditional lands of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations, a member of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which won a court case recognizing its rights to the area.
Local activist Masrour Zoghi had one message for Taseko: “Stop being douche bags.”
“I don’t want lakes to be turned into mine tailing dumps left, right and centre,” he said at the vigil. “This is just a bad example that they are setting, and hopefully it just won’t go through, because if it does, there is going to be a whole barrage of lakes that are going to be turned into dump sites, which is kind of sad.”
The Straight stopped by Taseko’s offices on West Pender Street and dropped off a business card, but company representatives didn’t grant an interview today.
What is special is the amount of gold and copper found in the area. There aren't places like that elsewhere in Canada, and if Canadians wants to be able to afford to eat trout in the future, the mining business is what will drive the Canadian economy. Lakes are beautiful of course, but this is a small sacrifice worth making for the benefit of the people.
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(HELP WANTED)
Read:http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10197
This practice should be stopped, corporate profit should not come ahead of environmental concerns. Personally, I would like to leave something for my grandkids to inherit, not a bunch of toxic waste lakes!
This story is not so simple.
In 2008, after Taseko Mines spent more than $100 million surveying and preparing what it now calls the Propserity Mine, the Conservative government classified Fish Lake under the federal Fisheries Act's Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMERs), effectively saying this is no longer a lake, but a toxic holding pond for effluent and mineral debris from the proposed open pit mine.
Boom, hiss.
Repeal the regulations, and have a proper environmental assessment on this and all mining proposals in Canada.
But wait, there's more.
Vuica isbeing completely disingenuous when she says: "If the Fish Lake is destroyed, the Chilcotin First Nation are going to lose their homeland, and where are they going to go?”
Here is a map of the treaty claim area.
http://www.carrierchilcotin.org/CCTC_Map_11x17.pdf
Fish Lake, located about 10 km north of the Taseko Lakes is NOT part of the official land claim area, as defined on First Nation council's website.
(Go to Google maps, and type in these coordinates - 51 27 0 N 123 37 0 W - and compare them to the official land claim map above.)
Good guys? Bad guys?
Yikes!
We're being played for dupes from all sides.
This isn't native land. It's crown land that the FN bands in the area think they own mineral rights to. They think its theirs because they were given a map by the provincial government a while back and asked where their "traditional territory" was. And then 250% of the province was divided and anyone who had purchased timber licenses or mineral rights were then extorted in order to get to their goal because the government didn't have the balls to say what the rules were.
If this application is shot down because of opposition you can kissing investment in this province goodbye. We can't become a nation of wallmart greeters selling cheap imported crap to one another while the natives continue to suck millions out of taxpayers pockets while the rest of us have no representation because we were born of the wrong race.
It's time to approve this mine and cut the crap that this is going to destroy the entire fraser river fishery. IT ISN'T. The lies of greenpeace need to be outed. This is going to temporarily close a lake and another one will be created.
Get real. There is no such thing as 'no toxic waste'.
You are using a computer, and that causes lots of toxic waste.
When you go to the bathroom, you are adding toxic waste to the water supply.
Every household cleaning product is toxic to some degree.
For truly divine environmental cleanliness, try these instructions:
Deuteronomy 23:12-14 (King James Version)
12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:
13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:
14 For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
If you have trouble understanding that, a more modern version can be found here:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2023:12-14&versi...
And as someone stated above, the forestry industry has harmed the habitat more so than the mining industry, yet we don't see the federal government disapproving forestry (we ship most of our lumber to the US hmmm coincidence?)
The BC provincial government has already approved the contract, so what reason should the federal government give to prove that it's judgement is better than that of the provinces?