Thursday, January 14, 2010

Province Issues Environment Assessment Certificate for the Prosperity Mine

The Prosperity mine is located near Taseko Lake in the Chilcotin, it is about 125 km from Williams Lake. It was granted an environment assessment certificate today.

The deposit is a large copper gold porphyry. It has been on the radar of prospectors since the 1930s. The property has been owned by Taseko Mines ltd since 1969. Taseko is not just an exploration junior, they operate the copper-moly Gibraltar mine 75 km northwest of Williams Lake.

The Taseko mine has a 20 year life span at the moment. The capital cost to build the mine is estimated to be about $807,000,000. Employment by the mine is estimated to be about 375 people per year. The mine will produce 247,000 ounces of gold and 108,000,000 pounds of copper per year. At today's gold and copper price, this is over $700 million a year. The mine remains in the black even if the price of both gold and copper drop to one third of where they are now.

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