Taseko in Fed Court re: New Prosperity report

Taseko Mines announced today that there are seeking a judicial review of the Federal Review Panel's Final Report for 'New Prosperity' as it relates to the portion of the Panel's report in regards to Fish Lake and a declaration that the Panel failed to adhere to procedural fairness in certain aspects.  The judicial review application was filed on Friday, November 29th

This action follows letters Taseko sent to CEAA (Cdn Environmental Assessment Agency) and the Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (Fed. Minister of the Environment) on Nov 8th/15th in regards to their concerns with certain aspects of the Panel's report for New Prosperity

View the legal action here

I'll be interested to see what the Federal Court does with the legal challenge to the Final Panel Report.  If successful, would that change the outcome of Ottawa's deliberations for New Prosperity…?

From Taseko Mines' Ltd:

Taseko (TSX: TKO; NYSE MKT: TGB) (the "Company") has commenced a federal judicial review, seeking to set aside certain findings of a review panel report relating to the Company's New Prosperity Gold-Copper Project environmental assessment.
Taseko is asking the court for a declaration that certain panel findings relating to seepage and water quality be set aside, and that the Panel failed in certain respects to comply with principles of procedural fairness.

The judicial review will address the question of whether Natural Resources Canada ("NRCan") -- and in turn the panel -- made a fundamental error when determining expected seepage rates from the tailings storage facility. Taseko believes the evidence is clear that NRCan failed to account for a liner that would be part of the tailings storage facility -- thus modeling the wrong project design and assuming water would seep into open ground.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency ("CEAA") requested Taseko's response to several questions regarding this matter and the Company has provided that information in letters dated November 8 and November 15, 2013 to the Minister of Environment and to CEAA respectively which are publicly available.

"Taseko had no choice but to file this application in order to comply with a 30 day time limit," said Taseko President and CEO Russell Hallbauer. "But we remain of the view that the federal government should allow the project to proceed to the next stage of detailed permit-level examination and if so the judicial review would not need to proceed," added Mr. Hallbauer.

The panel found that the project was not likely to have significant adverse effects in approximately 30 different areas including human health, salmon habitat and wildlife. Those findings are not being challenged.

A copy of the application to the Federal Court and the November 8 and 15, 2013 letters to the Minister of Environmental are available at Taseko's website: www.tasekomines.com