Taseko Mines (TGB) (TKO.to) got company

Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice. This report from Globe&Mail yesterday (excerpt) brings us the latest happenings around Taseko (TBG)(TKO.to):

Investigators are trying to determine whether a leak of sensitive information from within the federal government prompted a sharp drop in value of the shares of a British Columbia mining company, the CBC is reporting.

Citing unnamed government sources, the broadcaster said Wednesday night that the Investment Regulatory Organization of Canada is trying to determine why shares in Taseko Mines Ltd., fell nearly 40 per cent on Oct. 14, more than two weeks before the federal government announced that it was blocking the firm’s plans to develop the Prosperity Mine, a development 125 kilometres southwest of Prince George. Continues here

Well, for my dos centavitos it's about time the Canadian regulators did something about this company. For a start this post on November 3rd pointed out the current leaky boat problem with this permit denial. Here's how that post ran:

Taseko Mines (TGB) (TKO.to): A leaky boat

Hey, remember all that flashcrash thing about Taseko Mines (TGB) (TKO.to) ("TKO"...geddit?) on October 14th when the stock fell a squillion or so on 23m shares traded? Well here's the chart to yesterday.....

.....and here's an excerpt of the news from Reuters today about TGB:

Nov 2 (Reuters) - The government of Canada has decided to block the development of Taseko Mines' (TKO.TO) controversial copper-gold mine in British Columbia, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Tuesday.
Ottawa's decision -- based on "concerns about the significant adverse environmental effects" -- overrules British Columbia's provincial government, which had granted permission for the Prosperity project to go ahead.
The news hammered shares of Taseko Mines, which fell 25 percent to $4.89 in after-market trade in the United States.

And here's the "extremely disappointed" TGB's NR this morning. Seems the market was trying to tell you something after all, no? Oh by the way, Franco Nevada (FNV.to) is taking a bit of a bath on this news too, what with its royalty stream affected.

IKN back. But for those with a longer memory, it does seem that management have....errrr....ahem...something of an inside track on permit decisions previously. Back in January we ran this post that showed how Taseko management awarded themselves very large options deals the day before the original thumbs-up decision on the permit (the very same one that was subsequently overturned on November). Here's that post pasted out for you:

Taseko Mines (TKO.to) (TGB): Lucky timing, boyz

As the old saying goes, Better born lucky than rich, proven once again by those lucky lucky directors over at Taseko Mines (TKO.to) (TGB) and their lucky lucky timing. On Jan 15th, this news release hit the wires that started....

VANCOUVER, Jan. 15 /CNW/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE Amex: TGB) ("Taseko" or the "Company") received the environmental assessment certificate for its proposed Prosperity Gold-Copper Project from the BC Provincial Ministry of Environment on January 14, 2010.

"Obviously we are tremendously pleased with the Provincial Government's decision. We put considerable effort and Company resources into the documentation and process and to have now received this approval is both gratifying and rewarding," says Taseko President & CEO Russell Hallbauer.

.....and saw the stock shoot from sub $4.50 to over $5 instantly.

And by total, utter chance, look who awarded a whole bunch of options to themselves the day before that NR came out:

Taseko Mines Limited (TKO)						As of January 19th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Jan 19/10	Jan 14/10	Mundie, Richard	Direct Ownership	Options	00 - Opening Balance-Initial SEDI Report
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Mitchell, Peter	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	200,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Armstrong, William Paul	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Coughlan, Terrance Barry	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Battison, Brian	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	150,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Jones, Scott	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	150,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	McManus, John	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	200,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Hallbauer, Russell Edward	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	300,000	$4.460
Jan 17/10	Jan 15/10	Kirk, Harry Wayne	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-50,000	$5.140
Jan 15/10	Jan 14/10	Dickinson, Robert Allan	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460

"Gratifying and rewarding" indeed.

IKN back. Seriously folks, what's going on here? Who were the people behind that October 14th flashcrash selling that happened just two weeks before the Prosperity project saw its permit denial? How did TKO management happen to time their options awards so amazingly well, getting them handed over the day before getting the original approval permit for the Prosperity gig? Inquiring minds...........

UPDATE: Cue Owly:

Time for a link to a new development (and thanks to JM for the headsup).

Nov 25, 2010 14:15 ET

BCSC Reviewing Trading in Taseko Mines Ltd. Shares

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 25, 2010) - The British Columbia Securities Commission is reviewing a referral made to it by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) regarding the trading in the shares of Taseko Mines Limited.
The BCSC does not comment on matters under review.
The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. If you have questions, contact Ken Gracey, media relations, 604-899-6577.

Taseko Mines (TGB) (TKO.to): A leaky boat

Hey, remember all that flashcrash thing about Taseko Mines (TGB) (TKO.to) ("TKO"...geddit?) on October 14th when the stock fell a squillion or so on 23m shares traded? Well here's the chart to yesterday.....

.....and here's an excerpt of the news from Reuters today about TGB:

Nov 2 (Reuters) - The government of Canada has decided to block the development of Taseko Mines' (TKO.TO) controversial copper-gold mine in British Columbia, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Tuesday.
Ottawa's decision -- based on "concerns about the significant adverse environmental effects" -- overrules British Columbia's provincial government, which had granted permission for the Prosperity project to go ahead.
The news hammered shares of Taseko Mines, which fell 25 percent to $4.89 in after-market trade in the United States.

And here's the "extremely disappointed" TGB's NR this morning. Seems the market was trying to tell you something after all, no? Oh by the way, Franco Nevada (FNV.to) is taking a bit of a bath on this news too, what with its royalty stream affected.

Taseko Mines (TKO.to) (TGB): Not lucky but naughty

Hi Trevor!

On Wednesday this humble corner of cyberspace noted that those lucky lucky directors at Taskeo Mines (TKO.to)(TGB) managed to squeeze themselves a multimillion dollar options handout on the day they received a vital permit and the very day before they published the news of that permit to the market (and added 25% or so to the stock price).

Yep, better born lucky than rich, boyz.

However, it's not so good when they go on and just plain straight break the rules on options payouts. The latest filing over at TKO.to shows that Trevor Thomas (the corporate secretary and a man that should know better, being all legal beagle and that) got handed out 27,000 options on Jan 18th:

Taseko Mines Limited (TKO)						As of January 21st, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Jan 21/10	Jan 18/10	Thomas, Trevor	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	27,000	$4.770

The problem with this isn't the size of the award. It's not the eligibility of Thomas, either. The problem is that a company cannot legally award options at any price lower than the day's trading range (in fact, normally they go for the closing price of that day). As we see Trevor Thomas got his priced at $4.77, which is as strange as strange can be, cos the low for that day was the right at the opening bell $5.10 and the close was a whopping $5.83, over a dollar higher (and by the way, he can't even claim the options are at the US price, cos the 18th was MLK day and the US markets were closed).

The thing is, Trevor is a busy busy dude, being corp sec at Taseko and also working at Hunter Dickenson and Arooraq and Amarc Resources and Continental Minerals and Farallon Resources and Northern Dynasty and Rockwell Diamonds...PHEW!! What a busy boy! So it's my guess that busy busy all over the place that Trev, being busy and that, wasn't hanging at the TKO.to office on the right day and just got forgotten on that round of options handouts. So he sees the filings and gets his "Hey! Waddabout me?" message through to the board who then go "Oh Crap! We forgot Trev in the rush to dole out the cheapo goodies in time.....sorry Trev!" and try to repair the damage. The only problem is that they have tried to do it by illegal means.

You really gotta wonder if this board at TKO.to have their own back pockets as the main agenda at the company...........

Taseko Mines (TKO.to) (TGB): Lucky timing, boyz

As the old saying goes, Better born lucky than rich, proven once again by those lucky lucky directors over at Taseko Mines (TKO.to) (TGB) and their lucky lucky timing. On Jan 15th, this news release hit the wires that started....

VANCOUVER, Jan. 15 /CNW/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE Amex: TGB) ("Taseko" or the "Company") received the environmental assessment certificate for its proposed Prosperity Gold-Copper Project from the BC Provincial Ministry of Environment on January 14, 2010.

"Obviously we are tremendously pleased with the Provincial Government's decision. We put considerable effort and Company resources into the documentation and process and to have now received this approval is both gratifying and rewarding," says Taseko President & CEO Russell Hallbauer.

.....and saw the stock shoot from sub $4.50 to over $5 instantly.

And by total, utter chance, look who awarded a whole bunch of options to themselves the day before that NR came out:

Taseko Mines Limited (TKO)						As of January 19th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Jan 19/10	Jan 14/10	Mundie, Richard	Direct Ownership	Options	00 - Opening Balance-Initial SEDI Report
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Mitchell, Peter	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	200,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Armstrong, William Paul	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Coughlan, Terrance Barry	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Battison, Brian	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	150,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Jones, Scott	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	150,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	McManus, John	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	200,000	$4.460
Jan 18/10	Jan 14/10	Hallbauer, Russell Edward	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	300,000	$4.460
Jan 17/10	Jan 15/10	Kirk, Harry Wayne	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-50,000	$5.140
Jan 15/10	Jan 14/10	Dickinson, Robert Allan	Direct Ownership	Options	50 - Grant of options	100,000	$4.460

"Gratifying and rewarding" indeed. Monty Python sums it up: