Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA, NYSE: SA) is rejecting criticism from the Gitxsan Huwilp and the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation over the KSM project in British Columbia.

In a release on Monday, Seabridge said the Tsetsaut “were given extensive opportunity, fully funded by Seabridge, for full consultation of the tailings management facility at a more conceptual level during the KSM project environmental assessment review process.”

The dispute stems from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office’s July 2024 decision that KSM had been “substantially started,” which prevented its environmental assessment certificate from expiring. The Tsetsaut challenged that decision in court, saying they had not been properly consulted.

The Supreme Court did not rule on whether KSM had been substantially started. Instead, it found that the province failed in its duty to consult the Tsetsaut before the environmental office made that determination. The judge quashed the office’s decision and sent the matter back for fresh consultation and a new decision.

The court ordered the office to give the Tsetsaut 90 days to make written submissions, a period that expires Sept. 28. Last week, the Gitxsan withdrew their support for the project to back the Tsetsaut, adding another layer to a permitting process that now depends on renewed consultation rather than the earlier determination alone.

Project delays

KSM, located 65 km northwest of Stewart, B.C., is one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold projects. It has been delayed by the First Nation legal challenge and another court dispute involving developer Tudor Gold (TSXV: TUD).

The province has said the two companies must reach a solution over tunnels and mineral claims before approvals can be granted.

Seabridge Gold shares have fallen 12% over the past six months, roughly in line with the decline in gold prices from their all-time high in February. The stock traded at $44.98 on Monday afternoon, giving the company a market value of $4.84 billion.

A 2022 preliminary feasibility study estimated KSM’s reserves at 47.3 million oz. of gold and 7.3 billion lb. of copper, with a net present value of $5.8 billion (C$8 billion). Those figures help explain why the project remains closely watched even as legal and consultation issues continue to delay approvals.

Land rights

Seabridge also objected to the Tsetsaut’s claim that tailings are to be located on its exclusive territory. The company said the Tahltan and the Nisga’a nations also hold treaty rights in the region. Seabridge said the Tsetsaut’s “insistence that the company treat them as exclusive owners of this territory has made our relationship with [them] challenging.”

Ryan Beaton, a lawyer for the Tsetsaut, said Seabridge’s statement conflicted with conclusions reached by the province.

“Perhaps it is widely accepted that the Tahltan Nation claims that area, but it certainly is not widely accepted that there is any evidentiary merit to that claim,” Beaton told the Northern Miner Group.

Beaton pointed to a 2021 ethnographic report on the Tsetsaut’s rights and title claims, as well as a 2023 letter from the provincial ministry of Indigenous relations and reconciliation that agreed with the study’s assessment.