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A PUBLIC REPLY FROM THE TSILHQOT'IN TO TASEKO MINES

TSILHQOT'IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
#253 Fourth Avenue North -- Williams Lake, BC V2G
4T4 -- Phone (250) 392-3918 -- Fax (250) 398-5798

October 29, 2009

Taseko Mines Ltd.
Suite 300 - 905 West Pender Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1L6

Attention: Brian Battison, Vice President, Corporate Affairs

Dear Mr. Battison:

We have reviewed your letter of October 27, 2009.

We asked Taseko to work with our First Nation to address the deficiencies in
your EIS, as the Panel itself encouraged. Your letter not only rejects this
request, but then continues, in typical fashion, to malign the character and
motives of the Tsilhqot'in people and their leadership.

We make no apology for our opposition to this proposed Project so long as it
requires the complete destruction of Teztan Biny and the surrounding lands
and waters. Despite our many efforts to explain this position, Taseko
continues to blame and deride our First Nation, our leaders and our people
for their opposition to your Project.

You say that TNG ignored your letters requesting comments on Taseko's
"so-called" consultation summary. That is completely untrue. Chief Ervin
Charleyboy responded to you directly, by letter dated January 26, 2009, and
he explained the position of the Tsilhqot'in Nation as follows:

Finally, it appears that we are confronting a fundamental difference of view
on certain key issues that will not lend itself to resolution through
dialogue. Your company has taken the firm position that the destruction of
Teztan Biny is unavoidable if your Project is to proceed. We are determined,
and charged with the duty, to protect and preserve Teztan Biny and the
ancient and abiding connection of our people to this lake. This is a deep
spiritual and cultural bond that makes us who we are as Tsilhqot'in people -
once destroyed it is lost forever. It cannot be replaced with a new lake.

Nonetheless, Chief Charleyboy stated that TNG remained open to engagement

with Taseko on select issues of mutual benefit.

You say that "all efforts of Taseko to work with the TNG, or even obtain the
most basic information, have been ignored and rebuffed". Again, this is
completely untrue. In fact, it was Mr. Hallbauer that flatly rebuffed Chief
Charleyboy's offer of continued engagement between TNG and Taseko, by letter
dated Feb. 6, 2009, stating "I can't now possibly guess at what more we
might be reasonably expected to do to satisfy you. You have exhausted our
imagination. The Company has done all it can to engage with you".

I suggest that you review Chief Charleyboy's response to Mr. Hallbauer,
dated March 6, 2009. It responds to the same allegations that run through
your letter. Chief Charleyboy responds, in detail, to the assertion that
Taseko has already "generously" funded TNG, and I will not repeat his
response here. I will, however, remind you that when Taseko terminated
funding to TNG, at the outset of the environmental review process, it left
TNG with a considerable amount owing for work that was conducted in good
faith. That amount is still outstanding.

Chief Charleyboy also responded, in detail, to the same insinuation that you
raise yet again in your letter - namely, that it is somehow unreasonable or
bad faith for the Tsilhqot'in people to oppose this Project. I cannot put it
better than Chief Charleyboy:

"We made it clear on a number of occasions that the Xeni Gwet'in people and
the Tsilhqot'in Nation strongly opposed the Prosperity Project so long as it
requires the destruction of Teztan Biny. We have never wavered from that
position.

Your company is doing everything in its power to construct a massive
open-pit mine in the heart of our traditional lands, and you have offered no
options that do not require the complete destruction of an ancestral lake
that has sustained our people for generations. You are coming into our
homeland with plans to desecrate an enduring bond between our people and our
lands that is deeper than you will ever understand - all for some twenty
years of "prosperity". When you deride our efforts to honour our
responsibilities and to protect our lands as "activist strategies", and when
you complain that we still oppose your project after you have "exhausted"
your imagination to please us, you make it abundantly clear that you have
not heard a word that we have said, despite your careful records of
countless meetings. We stand committed to the protection of Teztan Biny and
our traditional lands. Your most recent letter makes it clear that Taseko
still has not heard a word that we have said."

I have attached this correspondence record so that the Panel has the
opportunity to judge for itself whether Taseko in fact remains willing to
work with First Nations, as it repeatedly claims. Every day, we hear the
fears and apprehensions of our communities about the potentially devastating
impacts of your proposed project in an area of our homeland that holds very
special cultural and spiritual significance for our people. Taseko may
disagree with our position, but we see no reason for Taseko to continually
turn a deaf ear to these concerns, or to blame and disparage the Tsilhqot'in
people and leadership for opposing its Project.

The Tsilhqot'in people are opposed to any mine that would destroy Teztan
Biny, but the conduct of Taseko, its willingness to blame First Nations
loudly at every turn, and its disregard for our deeply felt concerns, has
only deepened our apprehension. Operating any major project in an area of
such importance to a First Nation requires an ongoing relationship based on
trust and respect, to avoid conflict and turmoil. In this case, we are not
even through the environmental assessment, and Taseko has made it all too
clear that it is not able or willing to bridge differences or build trust.
Its recent letters and statements in the media are clearly intended to
aggravate rather than resolve conflict.

Taseko's inability to build relationships with local First Nations, to
understand their perspective, or to avoid fanning the flames of conflict and
blame, are just a few more reasons why it is not in the public interest to
approve this project in the heart of Tsilhqot'in traditional lands, over the
strong objections of our people.

Yours truly,

ON BEHALF OF THE TSILHQOT'IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT:

Chief Bernie Elkins, Director
Prosperity Project Working Group

cc: Panel Members, c/o Colette Spagnuolo, Panel Manager -
via email.

For a .pdf version of this letter, plus the additional correspondence, click here.

Posted by admin Tuesday Nov 03, 2009 10:51
Categories: Fish Lake | Tags: First Nations, fish, indigenous, mining, Prosperity, Taseko, Tsilhqot'in, water

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