The company looking to do test drilling for a mine in the Cariboo is seeking a court injunction to end a blockade by First Nations.

Taseko Mines was supposed to begin work on Tuesday, but speaking on NL Newsday, vice president of corporate affairs Brian Battison says the company has not been able to start because of the blockade.

“We have instructed our legal counsel to apply for an injunction to apply for an injunction to permit us to access our property, so that the work can be done. The work is legal, it’s authorized by the government of British Columbia, but we can’t perform that work because of this illegal road block.”

Taseko is spending $15 million dollars to do exploration of the New Prosperity copper and gold deposit, west of Williams Lake.

Battison responded to an accusation that the company is doing test drilling in order to give itself a legal backing to file a lawsuit, and that it won’t actually build a mine afterwards.

“No intention to build a mine? We’ve been trying to get permit to build a mine and to invest in British Columbia since 2006. This is what we do. We are a mining company, as people who know and are familiar with us we operate the Gibraltar Mine in (McLeese Lake), it’s the second-largest copper mine in Canada, we have 700 people working there.”

The New Prosperity mine proposal has twice been rejected by the previous federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

– with files from Brett Mineer