Mr. Russell Hallbauer reports

TASEKO ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER 2013 GROSS PROFIT OF $13.2 MILLION

Taseko Mines Ltd. has released its results for the three months ended March 31, 2013.

Highlights:

• Revenues for the first quarter of 2013 were $60.2-million from the sale of 16.8 million pounds of copper and 253,000 pounds of molybdenum.
• Total production at Gibraltar (100 per cent) for the first quarter was 23.2 million pounds of copper and 355,000 pounds of molybdenum.
• In April, 2013, Taseko announced a participation and co-operation agreement had been finalized between the Gibraltar mine and the Williams Lake Indian Band, which included provisions for the establishment of an implementation committee, community engagement, education and training initiatives, as well as economic development initiatives.
• On March 28, 2013, concentrator No. 2 (GDP3) produced first concentrate and commenced ramp-up after a planned 10-week commissioning schedule.
• Taseko continues to take a strategic approach to ensuring a minimum revenue stream with the purchase of copper put options for the company's share of production. For 2013, put options are in place for approximately 50 per cent of production at a strike price of $3 (U.S.) per pound in the first half of the year and $2.75 (U.S.) per pound in the second half. In addition, options were purchased for approximately 40 per cent of production for the first quarter of 2014 at a strike price of $3 (U.S.) per pound.

For the three months ended March 31, 2013, Taseko had gross profit of $13.2-million, a net loss of $10.5-million and an adjusted net loss of $2.9-million. This compares with gross profit of $20.3-million, a net loss of $6.3-million and adjusted net earnings of $3.1-million for the three months ended March 31, 2012.

Russell Hallbauer, president and chief executive officer of Taseko, commented: "This first quarter of 2013 will be the last quarter that Gibraltar will operate as a single-line facility. With concentrator No. 2 now operating at approximately 75 per cent of design capacity after only 35 days of operation, the site will no longer be as dramatically impacted by mill downtime as it has in the past. In April, concentrator No. 2 processed approximately 600,000 tons of ore and averaged an 83-per-cent copper recovery. Over all, the site processed just under two million tons of ore over the same period, nearly a 30-per-cent increase over March.

"In the last two weeks of April, excluding a scheduled two-day maintenance down, concentrator No. 2 averaged in excess of 28,000 tons per day and copper recoveries averaged 85 per cent."

Mr. Hallbauer continued: "In the first quarter of 2013 an additional 4.7 million tons were mined, compared to the fourth quarter 2012. Even with the increase in tons moved, Gibraltar's net operating cost of production decreased by 23 cents per pound compared to the fourth quarter 2012. While a portion of this is related to the capitalization of some of the mining costs as a result of new accounting policies, most of the cost savings were associated with the increased copper production. Going forward, we expect unit costs to continue to decline as copper production increases and mining operations benefit from significantly shorter waste hauls."

Taseko will host a conference call on Friday, May 3, 2013, at 11 a.m. (Eastern Time) (8 a.m. (Pacific Time)) to discuss these results. The conference call may be accessed by dialling 877-303-9079 or 970-315-0461 internationally. Accompanying presentation slides will be available to download at the company's website. Alternatively, a live and archived webcast will also be available at its website. The conference call will be archived for later playback until May 9, 2013, and can be accessed by dialling 855-859-2056 in Canada and the United States or 404-537-3406 internationally, and using the passcode 45756422.

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