After spending more than six months locked at a four-star rank, Taseko Mines (NYSE: TGB) has impressed enough top-performing members of our 170,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community to climb back to the top five-star level. A total of 1,735 members have given their opinion on the precious metal miner, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.

With its Gibraltar expansion projects nearing completion and the potential for federal approval nearing for its Prosperity mine, CAPS members are gaining more confidence in the future growth of Taseko Mines. The miner is also sitting on solid reserves and a financially sound balance sheet, and many investors see Taseko in a stronger position to capitalize on reserves than many peers. 

Similar to the higher copper prices being captured by larger copper producers such as Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) and Southern Copper (NYSE: SCCO) in their most recent quarters, Taseko saw higher realized prices for both copper and molybdenum, helping it report higher second-quarter earnings and revenue as well. The news has been getting better at its Gibraltar mine, too -- it's aiming to finish its expansion projects on Gibraltar by the end of this year, and the improvements have already helped generate higher production. In anticipation of a further increase to mill throughput, a new shovel from Bucyrus International (Nasdaq: BUCY), new haul trucks, and other equipment is being put in place.

The record high gold price recently reached -- as well as the prospects of even higher prices in the future -- has CAPS members growing more bullish on Taseko's Prosperity project. Prosperity is among a number of projects in British Columbia that show significant promise, including NovaGold Resources' (NYSE: NG) and Teck Resources' (NYSE: TCK) Galore Creek project, and New Gold's (NYSE: NGD) New Afton. But CAPS members are particularly eager about Prosperity. Taseko has been positioning itself to move forward in anticipation of gaining final approval, and CAPS members see solid growth potential in the mine.                               

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