November 13, 2008
November 13, 2008, Vancouver, BC - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; AMEX: TGB) (“Taseko” or the “Company”) announced today that approximately 75 employees will be laid off at its 100% owned Gibraltar Mine McLeese Lake operations.
Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO of Taseko stated, “In the past 24 months we have invested $250 million into the Gibraltar Mine to reduce operating costs and ensure it could operate at very low copper price levels.
Our manpower levels during the construction period increased as we worked on the concentrator modernization and mine expansion programs. With the concentrator and mining fleet now upgraded and more efficient than in the past, the size of the work force is inconsistent with our new operating efficiencies.
We continue to monitor and adjust our manpower requirements and aggressively manage our overall cost structure to ensure Gibraltar remains profitable during metal market price fluctuations.
This manpower adjustment will not affect Gibraltar’s annual copper production.
We would like to thank our employees, the Provincial Government and the Ministry of Energy Mines & Petroleum Resources for working with us in helping Taseko get Gibraltar into a position to weather declining metal markets. As well, the support of the Mayor of Williams Lake, Scott Nelson, has been invaluable in successfully communicating the importance of an operating mine to central British Columbia and, in particular to the City of Williams Lake.
As a Company we have taken a very conservative approach to our expansion plans by not incurring any long term debt. Our aim is to keep Gibraltar profitable and a viable operation should copper cycle back to lower than US$1.50/lb. We look forward to working with the Government and all the communities of the Cariboo-Chilcotin in the coming months as we enhance the competitive position of our Gibraltar Mine and move forward with the Environmental Assessment Review of Prosperity and receive an Environmental Assessment Certificate and ultimately build another long life mine in the central interior to complement Gibraltar.”
Contact:
Brian Battison, Vice President Corporate Affairs - Main: 778-373-4543, toll free 1-800-667-2114
or
Brian Bergot, Investor Relations - Main: 778-373-4545, toll free 1-800-667-2114
Russell Hallbauer
President and CEO
No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained in this news release.
This document contains “forward-looking statements” that were based on Taseko’s expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “outlook”, “anticipate”, “project”, “target”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “should” and similar expressions.
Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These included but are not limited to:
For further information on Taseko, investors should review the Company’s annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.