Natural Resources committee  This is Western Copper and Gold. No, because I have no other alternative to using carbon at this point in time.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, MP Hanley. It's good to see you again. Obviously, the opportunity I'm presenting here is Canada's largest critical minerals mine: copper and molybdenum for 27 years, plus a number of decades, and likely up to 100 years. That's a large opportunity in and of itself. Behind us, there are a number of other critical minerals projects as well, but that isn't the only thing we're talking about.

Natural Resources committee  It's my understanding that Premier Eby from British Columbia has publicly put his support behind this. I believe the application that was forwarded by the Yukon government into the critical minerals infrastructure fund includes a letter of support from Premier Eby. At that political level, there's absolutely alignment on this.

Natural Resources committee  It's part of our regulatory application. We need to show what potential there is for green energy. Those studies have been done. What we found is that there wasn't really a cost-effective opportunity for our mine specifically. That doesn't mean to say that there isn't an opportunity, if you expand the grid, to look at a number of different opportunities around the area, that that can't be brought into the Yukon and added to the energy mix.

Natural Resources committee  In 2023, there were a number of delays with the regulatory process. The positive is that you have first nations, federal and territorial governments all working together on comments. The negative is that it takes a long time to get all those comments collected. Sometimes there are delays through that.

Natural Resources committee  With the comments heard from the territorial and federal governments, there's duplication going on, absolutely.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely, yes. I certainly am encouraged by what we're hearing from the federal government in terms of streamlining the process, but excited to see what that actually means, particularly for northern locations such as the Yukon, which has a somewhat unique regulatory process.

Natural Resources committee  I think one of the key differences specific to what we're talking about here today is that access to power. You have an isolated grid in the Yukon that is completely over capacity at this point in time. You're looking at any additional mining projects that come on and that need to either generate their own electricity or connect to a grid.

Natural Resources committee  Do you mean start the process to get the project regulated, or start the process to...? The Yukon government has started the process to look towards a grid intertie between British Columbia and the Yukon.

Natural Resources committee  The project has a completed feasibility study from 2022. We're currently in the first stages of the regulatory process. In the Yukon, that's called the YESAB process. It's anticipated that it'll take approximately four years from today to get through that process, and there are another three years of construction.

Natural Resources committee  There have been a couple of fits and starts, but this current application, with the current design from 2022.... The establishment of the guidelines kicked off at the beginning of 2023. Those were reviewed. It went back and forth. The final guidelines were issued in September 2023.

Natural Resources committee  We're moving the project forward. We're looking at liquefied natural gas as our power source, because it's the only option available to us. We would love for it to not be liquefied natural gas. We would love for it to be green power producing green copper. We will continue to advance our project through the regulatory process.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation and honour of speaking today. My name is Paul West-Sells. I'm the president of Western Copper and Gold. Our flagship project, the Casino project, is one of Canada's largest and most significant critical mineral projects and is located in Yukon.

Environment committee  In terms of greenhouse gas and acidification.... In our mining project, obviously, we don't see acidification as a big impact. Your previous comment on drought and climate change is very interesting in that one of the key components of our regulatory review is the impact of climate change on our project.

Environment committee  Sure. One of the things that we can do as a modern mine is have water and water quality at the forefront of our design. For example, one of the things that we've done with our project is.... Our project is located about 20 kilometres away from the Yukon River, and—for those of you who haven't been up to the Yukon—the Yukon River is the lifeblood of the Yukon.