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Russell Hallbauer is president and CEO of Taseko Mines Ltd.
New gold-copper project near Williams Lake promises to bring new jobs
Taseko operates the Gibraltar mine near Williams Lake, the second-largest copper concentrator in Canada and by Christmas of this year, the third largest in North America.
We’re proud of what we do — supplying copper to a global market for the past 40 years, employing thousands of people and contributing billions in revenues to local, provincial and national economies. We are able to do so safely and efficiently because of the highly capable engineering staff and the more than 500 skilled and committed employees working at Gibraltar.
By the end of this year, Taseko will have invested nearly $700 million in new state-of-the-art mining and milling equipment for Gibraltar in just six years, improving efficiencies and providing greater assurance that the mine can continue to produce uninterrupted for 27 more years.
This week, Taseko filed with the federal government an environmental-impact statement (EIS) detailing its proposal to build a new mine in British Columbia, also near Williams Lake.
Called New Prosperity, the large gold-copper project represents a $1.1-billion investment and will increase federal government revenues by $4.30 billion and provincial revenues by $5.52 billion. The project is expected to generate $11 billion in gross domestic product for Canada, will add 57,000 person years of employment to the economy and will have an even greater economic impact than Gibraltar has had over these past 40 years.
At the heart of Taseko’s proposal is a $300-million commitment to mitigate environmental impacts and protect Fish Lake now and in the future. This comprehensive environmental management plan represents the collective effort of multiple environmental engineering firms recognized throughout the world as being among the best in their fields of expertise. The conclusions reached by these experts are that there will be no significant adverse environmental effects associated with New Prosperity. We are confident in these findings.
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