Yukon government ready to step in after mining disaster, company silence ‘not helpful’

WHITEHORSE, YUKON, CANADA — Yukon’s deputy mines minister says it is “regrettable and frankly unnecessary” that the owners of the Eagle Gold mine have remained “generally silent” about what to do about a disastrous ore slide that spilled hundreds of millions of litres of cyanide solution.

Lauren Haney said Victoria Gold has “done a lot of work” to treat and divert contaminated water, but it may not be enough, and the Yukon government is considering stepping in to “supplement and enhance” the company’s work.

She said at a news briefing Thursday that officials were “relying heavily” on advice from technical experts to keep them informed about the situation at the disaster site, and that the territorial government was not ruling out playing a larger role.

“We are currently studying all the scenarios, and one of them would be one where we would resume the activities of the site in a more complete way,” she said.

“There are a lot of complexities in having the business still on site and again, where possible, we need to complement what the business is already doing and supplement where necessary.”

Haney said an independent review panel would be appointed to investigate what happened at the mine on June 24, with the government already in contact with “world-renowned experts.”

“It’s like every mine that has had a breakdown around the world. This type of independent review panel is being set up to understand what happened,” she said. “And it’s absolutely with the goal of learning lessons and implementing them into our legislation and our regulatory practices in terms of enforcement.”

The government has estimated the ore slide allowed 300 million litres of cyanide solution to escape from the confines of the heap leach mine, which uses the chemical to extract gold from ore. The Eagle Gold mine is about 500 kilometres north of Whitehorse by road.

Yukon Mineral Resources Manager Kelly Constable said the situation at the mine site is constantly evolving and the company is running out of storage space for contaminated water in the mine ponds.

She said Victoria Gold is creating more storage space as a “temporary measure,” pumping contaminated water through the mine’s stockpile as it tries to build up additional capacity over the next 10 to 15 days.

Constable said the company’s water treatment plant is also currently unable to handle the volume of contaminated water, but it is working to upgrade it while increasing monitoring of the stability of the heap leach facility.

Victoria Gold has not provided a public update since July 12, saying additional information will be provided “as it becomes available.”

The company said at the time that it did not know whether it would ever resume production or whether it had the financial resources to repair the damage and mitigate the environmental impact of the disaster.

The company did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment Thursday.

Yukon Mines Minister John Streicker said at Thursday’s briefing that the Yukon government has requested more information from the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation, on whose territory the mine is located, about its request for a moratorium on mining on its land.

“I don’t speak on behalf of the First Nation, but I will share with you our understanding that following the failure of the heap leach, the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun does not want any new mining claims, new permits, exploration, development authorizations or ongoing mining activities on our traditional territory,” said Streicker.

“The Yukon government is now working to understand rights and obligations under Canadian and territorial laws.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2024

The Canadian Press