{"id":1124608,"date":"2019-07-03T19:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T19:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=995610"},"modified":"2019-07-03T19:00:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T19:00:41","slug":"first-nation-blockade-workers-at-british-columbia-copper-gold-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1124608","title":{"rendered":"First Nation blockade workers at British Columbia copper gold project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tsilhqot\u2019in First Nation have set up a \u201cpeaceful protest\u201d on a road near Williams Lake, British Columbia and have turned back a work crew that had planned to move in heavy equipment to conduct drilling for the New Prosperity mine.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>To date, the Tsilhqot\u2019in have been fighting the Taseko Mines Ltd. (TSX:TKO) New Prosperity copper mine through the courts.<\/p>\n<p>The Tsilhqot\u2019in made history in 2014, when the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that the Tsilhqot\u2019in had proven title over a small amount of their traditional territory, and wider aboriginal rights extending over territory outside of the title area.<\/p>\n<p>But the courts have also recently ruled against them in their efforts to halt geotechnical work related to the New Prosperity mine, so on Tuesday, July 2, the Tsilhqot\u2019in escalated the fight to a peaceful protest, and stopped stopped work crews from moving heavy equipment into the area. <\/p>\n<p>The mine project is still in something of a legal limbo. It has a provincial environmental certificate approving the copper mine, and also has a drilling permit from the province.<\/p>\n<p>But it doesn\u2019t have a federal environmental certificate. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency under the Stephen Harper Conservative government twice rejected the mine\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n<p>Taseko is fighting that decision at the federal court level. Meanwhile, as part of its provincial approval, the company has the authority to conduct geotechnical work required by the provincial environmental certificate.<\/p>\n<p>In mid-June, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal by the Tsilhqot\u2019in over a drilling permit issued by the provincial government.<\/p>\n<p>The Tsilhqot\u2019in assert aboriginal rights in the area where the New Prosperity mine would be built in an area called Fish Lake, known by the Tsilhqot\u2019in as Teztan Binay. The Tsilhqot\u2019in say Fish Lake has cultural and spiritual values that they intend to protect against mine development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis project is dead,\u201d Tsilhqot\u2019in Chief Joe Alphonse said in a press release. \u201cIt cannot be built. Yet the company wants to come in and tear up a place that is as sacred to us as a church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cB.C. needs to understand that TML (Taseko Mines Ltd.) does\u00a0not have and will not secure the consent of the T\u015dilhqot\u2019in Nation, and must intervene to prevent the conflict from getting worse,\u201d said Russell Myers Ross, vice chairman of the Tsilhqot\u2019in National Government.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if the company will seek a court injunction against the Tsilhqot&#8217;in, Brian Battison, a spokesman for the company said in an email:&nbsp;&#8220;That is one of the options we are contemplating at the moment, however no decisions have been made by the company on what our next (steps) will be.&#8221;<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tsilhqot&rsquo;in have turned back a work crew that had planned to move in heavy equipment to conduct drilling for the New Prosperity mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1124608"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124637,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124608\/revisions\/1124637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1124608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1124608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1124608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}