A... mining company is seeking a court injunction after its crew was blocked from beginning work this week on a controversial open-pit mine... Brian Battison, vice-president of corporate affairs for Taseko Mines Ltd., said the company has no other choice but to pursue the authoritative option after members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation blockaded access to the site... Mr. Battison said in an interview that the geotechnical work his company is seeking to do would benefit everybody. “It’s helpful to the First Nations who have concerns about how the mine proposal might affect the water quality of Fish Lake – that’s the central issue,” he said. “And, the information that we seek is required by the [provincial] Mines Act permitting process.”

... The Tsilhqot’in say the area is a spiritual and sacred place – a resting place for ancestors, a site for ceremonial activities and a place of special significance for the Nation’s cultural identity and heritage – and that B.C.’s approval of the drilling violates human rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples... Joe Alphonse, chief of the Tl'etinqox and the tribal chair of the Tsilhqot'in National Government... said First Nations do want to be involved in these types of projects, but they have to be properly consulted, and the projects pursued “in areas deemed to be acceptable."

The mine was approved by B.C. in 2010 but rejected twice by the federal government on environmental grounds... A decision by B.C.'s Supreme Court last August allowed Taseko to proceed with investigative work around the site of the proposed mine, and the court refused to hear the Tsilhqot'in Nation's appeal of that decision last month.