Western Copper is appealing a Yukon Supreme Court decision that backed up the Yukon Water Board's denial of a water licence for the Carmacks Copper Project.

The company filed its notice Friday with the Yukon Court of Appeal.

The water board rejected Western Copper's application last May after seven days of public hearings.

Western Copper appealed to the Yukon Supreme Court. The company argued the board erred in its findings and overstepped its jurisdiction, since the project had already been by approved by the Yukon government following a successful environmental screening.

The water board found the company was proposing to use "unproven technology” with its use of sulphuric acid to extract copper from the raw ore.

The board's decision came after the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) had already conducted a lengthy review and recommended approval of the project. The Department of Energy Mines and Resources subsequently issued a mining licence to Western Copper.

The company argued in its appeal to the Supreme Court that the water board did not have the authority to reject the application once the YESAB and the government had approved the project.

The board, it said, was free to build into the licence whatever terms and conditions it felt was necessary, but it did not have the ability to say no to the venture.

The appeal to the Supreme Court was heard in December 2010. Justice Ron Veale issued his ruling last month, indicating the board is independent so is not bound by previous decisions of another regulatory body.

On Friday, Western Copper simply indicated its intention to appeal Veale's decision, but has not yet filed its reasons for appealing.

"In talking with counsel, we felt there were grounds for appeal,” company president Paul West-Sells explained from Vancouver this morning. "Those will be delineated in the first filing, in some 60 days-plus.”

West-Sells emphasized finding some way to move forward with the Carmacks Copper Project is a high priority for Western Copper.

The company would prefer to avoid court and instead come up with a solution to satisfy the concerns of the water board, but filing the appeal was necessary to keep all options open, he explained.

Western Copper's proposed method of retrieving the copper has been at the centre of opposition to the project since the day the company filed its application to the YESAB in 2005.

The Little-Salmon Carmacks First Nation, the Selkirk First Nation and the Yukon Conservation Society spearheaded the resistance. They suggested that allowing the project to proceed would be akin to playing Russian roulette with the Yukon River watershed.

In Western Copper's press release issued Friday, the company indicated it's also studying engineering alternatives that could satisfy the water board's concerns.

West-Sells said it's too early to say what those alternatives might look like, having just commissioned the work.

Western Copper does believe, however, there are ways to get back in front of the water board without having to start over and go through the whole YESAB screening again, he said.

West-Sells said the company still believes clarity is needed from the government and the regulatory authority regarding the regulatory process.

Both Western Copper and the Yukon Chamber of Mines have stated that having the water board reject a project after it's been cleared by the YESAB and the government undermines any confidence the industry has in the territory's regulatory regime.

West-Sells said it's Western Copper's understanding there is a willingness on the part of the government and the regulatory agency to provide that clarity.

"Until we see something concrete, it is going to be difficult for us to rely on the process that is at this time quite muddy and unclear,” he said.

"We would rather have certainty in the regulatory regime in the Yukon provided for us outside the court process. It's better for us, it's better for the regulators and it's better for the Yukon.”

Others, however, maintain there is nothing wrong with the regulatory regime; that it worked in the case of Western Copper just as it was supposed to, and protection of the environment won, just as it's supposed to.