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| | Pacific Centre
      700 West Georgia Street
      P.O. Box 10101
      Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C7
| | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Report of Independent Registered Chartered Accountants**

**TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS OF AUGUSTA
  RESOURCE CORPORATION**
  We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of Augusta Resource
  Corporation and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31,
  2007, based on the criteria established in *Internal Control—Integrated
  Framework* issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
  Commission (the COSO criteria). The Company’s management is responsible
  for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for
  its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting,
  included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over
  Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s
  internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of
  the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards
  require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about
  whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in
  all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal
  control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness
  exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal
  control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as
  we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides
  a reasonable basis for our opinion.

A company’s internal control over financial reporting
  is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability
  of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external
  purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s
  internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures
  that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately
  and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company;
  (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary
  to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted
  accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are
  being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors
  of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or
  timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s
  assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over
  financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections
  of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk
  that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that
  the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

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In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects,
  effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2007,
  based on the COSO criteria
  We have also audited, in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing
  standards and the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
  (United States), the consolidated financial statements as of and for the year
  ended December 31, 2007 of the Company and our report dated February 29, 2008
  expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements.



|February29, 2008 | Ernst & Young LLP     
|---------------- | ----------------------
|Vancouver, B.C.  | Independent Registered
|                 | Chartered Accountants 

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