Government of Yukon provides update on heap leach failure at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Mine

Press Release

November 4, 2024

The Government of Yukon continues to provide updates to Yukoners regarding progress on the remediation work and environmental monitoring at the Eagle Gold Mine.

We are now in a situation where remediation work on site is progressing in a timely fashion, an independent review is underway, Victoria Gold employees and former employees are receiving supports and services and active monitoring of the health of fish, animals, people and the environment is ongoing.

Environmental compliance and inspectors’ directions

• All but one of the measures in the inspectors’ directions issued so far have been completed or are, by their nature, ongoing. These directions were issued to Victoria Gold Corp. requiring the company to undertake emergency environmental protection actions in the early aftermath of the heap leach failure. Construction of the groundwater interception systems will complete the final outstanding measure in the inspector’s directions issued to the company prior to the receivership.

Site remediation and infrastructure progress

• Construction of the safety berm and access road is now complete. This is a major milestone for remediation work at the mine site as it allows for groundwater interception wells to be safely installed just below the slide area.
• The berm also provides additional safety for workers, and the control pond and camp below the berm.
• This week an additional water storage pond was completed, adding a further 92,000 m3 of water storage capacity to the site. This is the third water storage pond to be built at the site under the receivership.
• In total, these ponds provide an additional 309,000 m3 of water storage on site – roughly the equivalent of approximately 124 Olympic swimming pools.
• Construction of the lower groundwater interception systems is now complete.
• Interception systems, including sumps and wells, have been constructed in several areas with more under construction at several sites to capture contaminated groundwater that has moved towards Haggart Creek and to prevent additional contaminated groundwater from entering the creek.
• Work is also progressing on the new water treatment plant. The current timeline is to complete their work in mid-November.

Water monitoring

• In Haggart Creek, results from surface water samples taken between September 30 and October 22 continue to show that groundwater contaminated by the heap leach failure has reached Haggart Creek.
• While the levels of mercury and other metals in Haggart Creek exceed water quality objectives, they do not pose a heightened risk to the health of residents or individuals using the land and water downstream of the mine.
• Mercury exceeded water quality objectives (WQO) at four monitoring locations, with exceedances for mercury ranging between 0.02 and 0.15 ug/L (WQO: 0.02 ug/L).
• These results show that elevated levels of mercury are present in the creek up to 3 km downstream of the mine site.
• During this period, results from Haggart Creek show that cyanide and cobalt levels also exceeded water quality objectives.
• Exceedances for cyanide ranged between 0.0054 and 0.0061 mg/L (WQO: 0.005 mg/L).
• Exceedances for cobalt ranged between 4.1 and 6.4 ug/L (WQO: 4 ug/L).
• When contaminants are present at levels that are higher than water quality objectives, there is potential for harmful effects to aquatic life.
• These results have led to additional monitoring to better understand the pathways of contaminated water and the potential risks to fish, wildlife, people and the environment.
• The most recent water quality monitoring results and specific figures can be found online at https://yukon.ca/en/victoria-gold-updates/environmental-monitoring.

Backgrounder

John Thompson
Communications, Energy, Mines and Resources
867-332-6042
john.thompson@yukon.ca

Simon Kishchuk
Communications, Environment
867-334-3988
simon.kishchuk@yukon.ca

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