Fish Lake, in B.C.'s southern Interior, is at the centre of a mining project dispute. Fish Lake, in B.C.'s southern Interior, is at the centre of a mining project dispute. (Council of Canadians)

First Nations chiefs in B.C.'s southern Interior say thousands of their bands' members will use any means they can to stop a major mine in the Chilcotin region.

An open-pit copper and gold mine to be dug by the B.C company Taseko Mines Ltd. has been proposed for the Nemiah Valley, about 160 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.

If the $1-billion project — which Taseko has named the Prosperity Mine — gets the green light from the federal government, one First Nations spokesman predicts lawsuits, protests, roadblocks and worse.

"We're peaceful people," said Ahanam Chief Joe Alphonse. "But if it comes to that, we're not intimidated at making a stand. There's no holding our membership back and I'm really fearful of that."

Stone Chief Ivor Myers told CBC News that extracted resources are "stolen property," and said he also feared potential violence.

"I don't want to see something like that where there's confrontation with the military. I don't want to see any bloodshed."

Myers says the mine would desecrate sacred land and dump toxic tailings, the byproducts of the mineral extraction process, into Fish Lake.

"This is a sacred site for our members," he said. "Our water is our No. 1 resource. It's worth more than gold."

B.C. has approved project

The Federal Environmental Assessment Panel began its final week of environmental hearings in Williams Lake on Monday.

Critics have said that the company's plan to dump mine tailings into Fish Lake will kill tens of thousands of fish.

Taseko has put forward suggestions for how it might be able to save some of the fish in the lake but said using the lake as a repository for tailings was the "one economically viable solution."

The panel will have until June 30 to send its recommendations to the federal government for approval.

The mine already has environmental approval from the B.C. government.

Many businesses and politicians in the Williams Lake area support the project, saying laid-off mill workers are eager for the hundreds of jobs in mining and construction the mine would create.

Corrections and Clarifications

  • A previous version of this story said the mining company Taseko acknowledged that tens of thousands of fish would be killed if mine tailings were dumped in Fish Lake. In fact, the company has not acknowledged that assessment. April 27, 2010 | 7:20 p.m. ET
With files from the CBC's Betsy Trumpener