Yukon government still trying to determine environmental damage
Yukon is still trying to determine the extent of the damage after a "significant" slide halted operations while potentially releasing cyanide at Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine. It will likely be within the next week before water-sample results determine if cyanide escaped containment and contaminated nearby waterways.
Yukon government officials from several departments held a technical briefing for the media on Friday morning, making it the first briefing since the incident on Monday. The officials had little to say about the accident.
"The slide appears to have damaged some mine infrastructure and the extent of this damage is not clear at this point. It is too early to say what caused the heap leach failure," said Kelly Constable, the government's mineral resources director.
Heap leaching is a process that uses cyanide solution to extract gold from stacked layers of ore. The incident involved a landslide on the ore stack. According to Constable, the incident was a "multi-bench failure" that was of "significant size."
According to Government officials, the owner and operator of the mine, Victoria Gold, built two containment dams immediately after the slide. According to the head of major mines for the Yukon Government, Russel McDiarmid, the dams "appear to have contained any solution" on site.
There have been water samplings on the mine sites. These samples were then sent to Burnaby, B.C., as analysis can't be done in the territory. According to officials, it will likely be at least Tuesday before sample results are in.
In an open note to all employees sent by the company and obtained by CBC News, Victoria Gold's vice-president and general manager Tim Fisch said the "major slope failure" would mean some temporary layoffs at the mine "as we work through a myriad of very complex and intricate issues."
"We are currently investigating the cause of the incident as well as developing an understanding of the operational consequences of the failure," the letter reads. "Given the magnitude of the event, it will be some time before we are again fully operational."
