Taseko Mines Ltd. is attempting to get federal environmental assessment authorization for its highly controversial New Prosperity Gold-Copper Project. The project is a revamping of a previously rejected proposal.
On September 26, 2012, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) confirmed that it received the "final" version of Taseko's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Agency had already provided a long list of improvements needed in an earlier draft. Following CEAA's receipt of the EIS there was a comment period which ended on November 11.
MiningWatch Canada reviewed comments on the EIS from five federal and three provincial agencies. All of the agencies found serious weaknesses and gaps with the EIS though the characterization of these weaknesses varied.
An analysis and summary of the comments is provided here (PDF 720 KB).
On December 10th, 2012, based on its own analysis and on the comments of government agencies, First Nations and others (including MiningWatch) the Review Panel issued a deficiency statement/information request with 50 specific issues for Taseko to address. Download the Panel's statement here (PDF 416 KB).
The full record of the review process thus far can be found on the CEAA Registry.