Taseko’s Gibraltar concentrator expansion

Taseko Mines Limited provides an update on the concentrator expansion at its 100% owned Gibraltar Mine in south central British Columbia.

The Semi-Autogeneous Grinding Mill (”SAG mill”) and its Ancillary operating components were released from the construction group to Gibraltar’s mill operations team December 27, 2007. Over the past 4 weeks, conversion work on the secondary grinding system has been completed ahead of schedule. As of February 1st, the Gibraltar concentrator facility has achieved the engineering designed milling rates expected from the SAG mill.

Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO of Taseko said it has been a short 16 months from the start of this process to having our new concentrator facility commissioned on time and on budget. With the bulk of the critical construction and concentrator conversion behind us, Gibraltar is positioned to increase its production rate by the end of 2008 to 120 million pounds of copper and 1.3 million lbs of molybdenum annually.

The Gibraltar team has completed this complicated expansion program while continuing to increase copper production and lowering the cost of that production. We are on schedule to more than double our metal production at a capital cost per ton of processing capacity that is significantly below that of any other copper producer. This will allow us to increase our earnings and cash flow as we continue to take advantage of the present regime of copper and molybdenum price.