Last week the B.C. Supreme Court announced that it was siding with Teck (NYSE: B-TECK) over the province’s finance ministry in a dispute over tax payments.
The dispute was over Teck claiming 50% or 100% of the exploration costs on its mineral tax return claimed from its partnership with Galore Creek Mine.
Galore Creek is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold-silver deposits, according to Galore’s website. The project is located in northwestern British Columbia. COVID-19 slowed work on the project, deferring a planned prefeasibility study.
Total exploration costs during the years in dispute were about $10 million.
“An operator of more than one mine in British Columbia in a year may elect to have exploration costs incurred in that year for one of the mines treated as exploration costs of one of the other mines for the purposes of determining its liability under the MTA for each mine,” writes the B.C. Supreme Court.
Teck said it was entitled to claim 100% of the exploration costs because “…under the terms of the GC Partnership Agreement it was obligated to fund all the exploration costs for the Galore Creek Mine, and was entitled to claim those costs in its mineral tax returns.”
“The respondent takes the position the petitioner is only entitled to claim 50% of the exploration costs because it was an equal partner in the GC Partnership with NovaGold.”
The court sided with Teck.