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yaponskion Jan 23, 2014 1:44am
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Spending a Decade or More on Land Claims
Spending a Decade or More on Land Claimsland claim B.C. First Nation Files Lawsuit To Stop Tulsequah Chief Mine Project
VANCOUVER - A First Nation has launched a lawsuit in an attempt to stop a struggling but potentially lucrative mine in northwestern British Columbia, more than a decade after the band's first court challenge of the project.
The Taku River Tlingit First Nation has filed a notice in B.C. Supreme Court asking that the Tulsequah Chief mine project, owned by Chieftain Metals, be stopped.
The proposed zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold mine is perched in the Taku River watershed, a region rich in wildlife and salmon that straddles the border between northwestern B.C. and southeastern Alaska.
The claim alleges that neither the company nor the provincial government properly consulted the band, and it argues the province's Environmental Assessment Office was wrong to extend the mine's environmental assessment certificate in June 2012.
The lawsuit says the office issued the extension after concluding work at the mine had "substantially started." But the band insists none of the mine's main components have ever been constructed and it argues the extension was invalid.
The band says the proposed mine would significantly harm the community's way of life.
"The project is within the heartland of the Taku River Tlingits' traditional territory," the lawsuit says.