Redfern Resources Ltd. has announced a major shift in its proposal to reopen the Tulsequah Chief mine in the Taku River watershed.

Instead of building what has been a hugely controversial 160-kilometre stretch of road through pristine wilderness from Atlin, B.C. to the mine site, Redfern now wants to use air cushion barges to ship ore up and down the river to Juneau, Alaska.

The shift in plans will save the company about $45 million or more when compared to the cost of building the road, project manager Rod Giles explained this morning from Redfern's Vancouver office.

As the company worked through an update of its feasibility study for Tulsequah Chief over the last year, it wiped the slate clean and looked at all options of improving the project's viability, he said.

'When we added up all of our numbers, we realized this was not only the most economic of the options, but it was also the least footprint.'

Giles said construction of the road was estimated 10 years ago at about $35 million. That cost, he noted, has risen to $50 million to $70 million, and even those numbers are not certain.

Construction of the barge and an amphibious tractor unit to tow it up and down the Taku River is estimated at $15 million to $20 million, with additional savings in the annual operation and maintenance associated with the transportation aspect, he explained.

Giles said the barge is not like a large hovercraft, with large motors propelling it and filling its inflatable skirt.

Diesel engines inside the barge will be used to inflate the belly, and there will be no propulsion system on the barge itself, he pointed out.

Giles said that together, with the diesels inside the barge, and the units required to power to the amphitrac, the noise will be no more than any of the fishing boats on the river or a transport truck driving down the highway.

In the nine-page press release issued by Redfern, the company sets out a schedule to have the mine in full production by the end of next year.

Redfern, Giles insisted, wants to get on with the project.

Redfern has been advised that it will take three to six months to secure the necessary U.S. permitting, he said. It will require an amendment to the existing approvals for the mine by the Province of British Columbia.

Giles noted that while the road option has been officially shelved, it could resurface if permitting for barge transportation starts to look like a long, drawn-out exercise.

Redfern already has a permit for the road and the mine, though the proposed project has led to a long and drawn-out standoff between Redfern, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation of Atlin and others concerned with the health of the Taku River watershed.

The proposal has been the subject of a number of court challenges, going all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada,

Construction of the road was of particular concern for the leaders of the Taku River Tlingits. Concern was also expressed by the Transboundary Watershed Alliance and others about the wisdom of permitting such industrial development in the heartland of wild salmon country.

Redfern Resources has pointed out all along that it has complied with all federal and provincial requirements environmental and otherwise to secure its project approval.

It also maintains that while in operation, it will be able to clean up years of environmental liability left behind when the mine first operated between 1951 and 1957.

Redfern president Terry Chandler said the opposition to the road was taken into account in the overall review that eventually resulted in the selection of the barge option, just as economics were.

Had this barge technology been known to the company 10 years ago, he suggested, who knows what would have happened?

This type of barge option, Chandler noted, was mentioned last September as the company was close to finalizing its revised feasibility plan.

'It became clear to us fairly quickly that this was a far superior option.'

Chandler said the company is currently working on raising the $201.5 million it requires to put Tulsequah Chief into production. He expects significant progress in raising financing within six months.

Giles said to meet its target of being in production next year, the company has to implement its proposed schedule that calls for completion of the construction camp this summer.

The schedule also lays out the requirement to begin construction of the air cushion barge and its amphitrac tractor in the next month, with completion scheduled for June.

The company is planning to use a conventional barge this summer to ship material into the mine.

Giles said the air cushion barge will carry 450 tonnes and sit in the water at a depth of 46 centimetres (18 inches).

The company is looking at one trip per day to Juneau, where the concentrates will be loaded for transportation to a Skagway port facility for shipment to smelters overseas, he explained.

The concentrate, Giles said, will be trucked along a 10- to 12-kilometre haul road from the mine site on the south side of the Tulsequah River to a landing and loading facility at the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku rivers. From there it will be barged to Juneau. He said the loading facility will be located on land already under a mineral claim owned by Redfern.

Giles said Redfern is working with Hovertrans Inc., an international company that describes itself as an expert in the field of heavy-lift hovercraft with more than 30 years' experience.

That company supplied air cushion barges to move equipment and material across the Yukon River at Fairbanks during the construction of the Alaska pipeline in the 1970s.

The amphibious amphitrac tractor unit, while modelled on a prototype unit that crossed the Bering Sea in the 1990s, will essentially be the first of its kind, Giles said.

Propulsion will be provided by a screw-like mechanism that acts as propellers in water and like tracks in winter conditions moving over the river ice.

Redfern is expecting to start out this year's construction plans with a crew of some 30 and build to somewhere around 200 by the end of the year, and up to 350 during peak activity in 2008, Giles said.

'When construction is finished, it will fall back to a normal operating complement in the neighbourhood of 200 people.'