When Chief Francis Laceese was seven years old he went fishing with his father at one of the traditional Tsilhqot’in fishing sites along the Fraser River and, during a break, scooped up a bucket of water to make tea over the fire. Today, no one would feel safe making tea from river water because of effluent flowing directly into the river from the Gibraltar mine, Laceese, 61, told The Narwhal. As Tl’esqox chief, Laceese is among the Tsilhqot’in leaders fighting against a provincial permit that grants the Taseko-owned Gibraltar mine permission to increase by 50 per cent the amount of untreated tailings pond water being piped into the river from the mine site 60 kilometres north of Williams Lake. The Gibraltar mine was first built in 1972 and is Canada’s second-largest open-pit copper mine.