BC First Nation seeks court order over Seabridge’s KSM project

The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha (TSKLH) Nation has applied to the British Columbia Supreme Court to review Seabridge Gold‘s (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) KSM gold-copper project after the province excused it from a permit expiry.

The First Nation is concerned about proposed tailings for the project in northwest BC, says it wasn’t properly consulted and wants the order reversed. The company and province have breached obligations under Canada’s constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the community’s lawyer says.

“The province has repeatedly acknowledged the planned location of KSM’s tailings waste is in Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha territory,” Ryan Beaton, the community’s lawyer, said on Monday. “Yet for years they have ignored, and allowed Seabridge to ignore, the Nation’s attempts to have its concerns addressed.”

Seabridge says its application for an exemption from the permit expiry was widely supported in the project’s area, including by Indigenous communities. The province deemed the project had “substantially started” so a July 2026 environmental approval deadline would not be broken.

A final decision on the TSKLH petition could take a year or more, the company said. In the meantime, the province’s ruling stays in place.

“TSKLH were provided the relevant information early and participated in the province’s review process, including submitting comments for the province’s consideration,” Seabridge chair and CEO Rudi Fronk said in a statement. “TSKLH may not agree with the ultimate substantially started determination, but Seabridge is confident that there is ample evidence that the determination was reasonable.”

Shares in Seabridge Gold fell 3.8% on Monday to close at C$20.26 in Toronto, valuing the company at C$1.8 billion. They’ve ranged from C$12.62 to C$28.39 over the past 52 weeks.

Order reversal

The TSKLH Nation claims an extensive traditional territory including the area of the KSM project, and it contests right of the Nisga’a Nation and Tahltan Nation over the area of the eastern portion of the project.

Seabridge says it provided the TSKLH with a copy of its application the day after it was filed in January. The Nation asked several times for in-depth consultation, and the province said it would consult with it. TSKLH had 30 days to review the draft report issued by the BC Environmental Assessment Office, and the Nation did make its views known.

At this point, Seabridge does not have access to the record of consultation between the province and the TSKLH Nation and says it’s unable to offer a fully informed view on the merits of TSKLH’s claims.

Under BC rules, a project’s Environmental Assessment Certificate expires if the project has not been “substantially started” by the deadline specified in the permit. However, the BC Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy can overrule the law if it makes certain determinations about the project’s advancement.

If TSKLH is successful, a typical order in these circumstances would require the province to return to its substantially started determination process, either to expand consultation of TSKLH or reconsider the reasons for its determination, and then a fresh determination would be issued.