Yukon government stepping in to build ‘safety berm’ after company misses deadlines

WHITEHORSE, YUKON — The Yukon government says it is stepping in to build a safety berm at the site of the Eagle Gold mine disaster after the mine’s owner failed to meet a deadline imposed by an inspector last week.

Yukon government officials said at a technical briefing Friday that the berm is essential to allow for the installation of groundwater monitoring and interception wells to collect contaminated material for treatment, but work has been hampered by a forest fire along an access road to the mine.

Lauren Haney, Yukon’s deputy minister of energy, mines and resources, said the mine’s owner Victoria Gold was supposed to build an access road and the berm by this week, but the government has now engaged contractors to do the work.

“Our directions to the company required them to start construction of an access road to the berm construction area by Sunday, to develop an execution plan for berm construction by Monday and to start construction of the berm itself by Wednesday,” she said. “The company has not met these deadlines.”

Haney said its contractors are in a “holding pattern” until they can safely access the site, and the construction will take about two weeks.

She said the government is only focused on “specific environmental protection measures,” not taking over the site.

The company remains responsible for cleanup after the June 24 slide of about two million tonnes of cyanide-contaminated ore and the escape of millions of litres of cyanide solution, Haney said.

Tyler Williams, a water resource scientist with the Yukon Department of Environment, said recent water samples from near the Eagle Gold mine show increasing cyanide levels in the groundwater, but still not enough to be dangerous to aquatic life.

Williams said slower moving groundwater around the site will have to be monitored for years, and the risk of surface water contamination remains “significant.”

“Faster groundwater paths are the main concern at this time. As such, our groundwater monitoring efforts focus on areas in close proximity to the mine site,” he said. “While there are limitations in being able to collect groundwater data, we are confident that our surface water monitoring in Haggart Creek will detect any contamination leaving the mine site.”

He said the increase of cyanide in the water indicated by field and laboratory testing “is consistent with what we would expect to see for groundwater, which takes longer to seep into the environment than surface water.”

He said after a mine disaster event, contaminants take time to enter the environment, and it’s “not like turning on a tap where everything happens right away and all at once.”

“I want to be clear that based on comparing laboratory results to guidelines for samples collected last week, we can be confident the results indicate water quality was protective of aquatic life,” he said.

Haney said Yukon’s government will try to recover costs from the company for the construction of the berm and the road, though Victoria Gold has laid off workers, decommissioned equipment and has seen its share price tank since the slide.

“It’s not a very positive outlook,” Haney said. “However, for now, the company remains on site and paying its contractors going forward and we are pleased to see them doing that.”

She said the company’s silence about the disaster has been unfortunate, echoing comments she made at a briefing last week.

“They haven’t provided explanations for why they are so publicly silent. We are in close communication with key members of the company and around getting the information we need to advance the human health and safety and environmental protection objectives we have, but publicly, I absolutely stand by what I said last week,” she said. “I think it is very unfortunate they haven’t come out with public statements and engagement and I certainly for one wish they would.”

Victoria Gold did not respond to requests for comment and hasn’t released a public statement since July 12, which said it is actively monitoring water around the site and co-operating with experts from the government and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, on whose territory the mine is located.

The company’s statement said production has been halted at the mine and that it potentially will not “have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”

— By Darryl Greer in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press