Shares drop on mining company behind Prosperity mine

Shares of a British Columbia mining company waiting on the federal cabinet to decide the fate of their controversial gold and copper mine plummeted Thursday.

APTN National News
OTTAWA–
Shares of a British Columbia mining company waiting on the federal cabinet to decide the fate of their controversial gold and copper mine plummeted Thursday.

Taseko Mines saw its stock fall by 11 per cent by the end of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

The dip marked its biggest negative shift since this summer when its shares dropped by 35 per cent after the July 2 release of a federal environmental panel report that panned the Prosperity mine project, Bloomberg said.

Taseko’s Prosperity project would cause the draining of Fish Lake, which is sacred to the Tsilhqot’in people who have pledge to fight the project at all cost.

Taseko released a statement Thursday saying it was “unaware of any information that would cause the price of the company’s stock to change materially.”

A decision by the federal cabinet to reject the mine proposal would have a negative impact on the company’s shares.

An analyst told Bloomberg that Thursday’s drop may have been just a mistake.

“One fat finger can send a bunch of other guys into auto-sells,” Adam Graf, a New York-based analyst told the financial wire-service.

The company has expressed confidence it would get approval for the project and APTN National News’ camera recently captured images of one of its helicopters landing on the shores of Fish Lake to pick up surveyors.

Taseko’s last major drop came in July. Its shares began sliding on June 26, days before the release of the environmental panel report, and bottomed out on July 6, according to a Yahoo financial chart.

Taseko was at $4.93US share on June 25 and dropped to $3.40 US on July 6.

A spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea told APTN National News on Thursday afternoon that no decision had been made on the project.

Fisheries and Oceans has the lead on the Prosperity file because of the project’s impact on fresh-water fish.

Takeo’s shares had recovered in early trading Friday.

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