Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation and honour to speak today.
My name is Paul West-Sells and I am the president of Western Copper and Gold. I'm accompanied by our vice-president of environmental and community affairs, Ms. Shena Shaw.
Our flagship Casino copper-gold project—a copper, gold, molybdenum and silver deposit— is located approximately 300 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse in the Yukon. The Casino project ranks among the largest copper, gold and molybdenum projects in Canada, and once operational, it will be the largest critical minerals project in Canada by annual revenue.
Rio Tinto has been a strategic investor in the project since 2021 and currently owns approximately 10% of the company. Mitsubishi Materials purchased a 5% stake in the company in early 2023.
It is anticipated that the Casino project will produce approximately 4.3 billion pounds of copper, seven million ounces of gold, 36 million ounces of silver and 350 million pounds of molybdenum over the 27-year life of the mine and will significantly contribute to the Yukon's, Canada's and the world's transition to a green economy.
While we say now that this mine has a 27-year life, the known resource could in fact sustain operations for almost 100 years, making ours a project that would bring generational prosperity, jobs and development to Canada's north.
Water is the foundation of an ecosystem. It supports and maintains healthy ecological processes for fish, wildlife and humans. Our priority is to be a responsible steward of the water we share through future operational efficiencies and conservation.
For Canada's responsible mining companies like Western, the federal government's role in safeguarding and managing the nation's freshwater resources is critical, especially in the context of increasing water scarcity. That's why we have designed a project with industry-leading best practices.
We have been conducting baseline studies for geochemistry, hydrology, surface water quality and groundwater for almost 15 years to ensure that our project is planned and developed in a way that achieves minimal impact to the environment and ecosystems. Western understands the importance of watershed management, and we are committed to contributing positively to the areas in which we operate.
Opening and operating a mine in the Yukon has different legislative and regulatory requirements than does doing the same in southern Canada. The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act, or YESAA, is the legislation that has come from modern treaties between federal, territorial and first nation governments. The assessment is open, accountable and transparent, and it is based on fundamental principles of comanagement of resources, as was enshrined in these treaties.
At Western Copper and Gold, we are dedicated to building strong, respectful and mutually beneficial relationships with all stakeholders, particularly indigenous communities, and to ensuring that their rights, traditions and knowledge are at the forefront of our water management strategies.
For projects such as ours, we believe that regulatory certainty is just as important as a speedy approval time. We value the principles of the Yukon first nations' final agreements and of the YESAA process, and we want to stress that any legislative or regulatory changes to the process should be considered carefully, as changes in the process in the Yukon could have impacts on first nation treaty rights and hurt the long-term trust that the process has come to embody.
We are excited to be part of Canada's critical minerals infrastructure and to be building an engine of economic prosperity while at the same time being strong stewards for the environment.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our perspective and comments. I look forward to any questions you may have.