April 21, 2008
April 21, 2008, Vancouver, BC - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; AMEX: TGB) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a six-year agreement with MRI Trading AG, a Swiss-based metal trading house, for the treatment and refining of Gibraltar copper concentrate. Under the terms of the agreement, Taseko has secured long-term, fixed, low cost rates for processing six years of Gibraltar mine production, or approximately 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate production, into copper metal.
Within the framework of this treatment and refining agreement, Taseko has also secured a US$30 million Line of Credit, to add to its $53 million on hand.
Taseko will continue to have the ability to sell copper metal at market prices.
Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO of Taseko stated, “The finalization of this new agreement has taken well over a year and has included many bidders. The agreement that we have negotiated reflects the tightness of the concentrate market where many smelters are trying to source from limited concentrate supply.”
Mr. Hallbauer continued, “Gibraltar produces one of the highest quality copper concentrates in the world which is reflected by the financial terms for processing our concentrate and the Line of Credit that has been secured. Stabilization of our treatment and refining costs for a period of six years is an important step as we continue to build our business and decrease Gibraltar’s cost structure while providing superior returns to our shareholders.”
For further details on Taseko and its properties, please visit the Company’s website at www.tasekomines.com or contact Investor Services at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 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.