The Yukon government is facing scrutiny over its handling of a major cyanide spill after confirming two main storage ponds are nearing capacity, raising the risk of even more contamination. Today, we catch up on the mess at Eagle mine – and cast ahead on the consequences for the industry. But first:
In the news
Does not compute: Canada’s $2-billion sovereign computing strategy is designed to help domestic companies access the necessary services to power artificial intelligence. But foreign companies could stand to reap much of the benefits – at least initially.
Grain pain: The union representing workers at six Vancouver grain terminals has issued strike notice to take effect on Tuesday, during the peak autumn period for handling commodities such as canola.
Bottle battle: Alcohol sales are proliferating in Ontario stores as the province continues to open the market, but some grocery store operators are balking at a requirement to take back empties if they’re not near a Beer Store.
Happening today
- Canada’s new housing price index for August.
- Euro zone purchasing managers’ index.
- U.S. S&P Global PMIs for September.
In focus
What’s happening at Eagle mine?
The Eagle Rock gold mine — as it looked before and after the June 24 landslide.Supplied
This Wednesday, exactly 100 days will have passed since four million tonnes of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed at an outdoor gold-mining site in central Yukon. The sudden rockslide set into motion a potential environmental catastrophe, fractious debate over how to handle the cleanup and questions over who bears responsibility for the costs.
How did we get here?
First, the spill: On June 24, Victoria Gold Corp. announced that it halted operations at its Eagle gold mine in central Yukon after an apparent rockslide. The company said nobody was hurt, but it did not say what caused the incident.
Two days later, The Globe and Mail reported that the slide wasn’t a naturally occurring event. The company said its “heap-leach pad” had failed, and that part of the infrastructure had breached the “containment region.”
- Heap leaching is a method that involves stacking mined ore into giant piles and then sprinkling them with hundreds of litres of water laced with toxic cyanide. Efficient, cost-effective and risky.
Then, a fight spills over: In swift order, the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun called for a stop to mining in its traditional territory. The Yukon government followed with early testing that revealed “elevated levels” of cyanide at a creek downstream of the mine, putting fish populations at risk.
A growing fight between the government and the company in the ensuing weeks would land in court: On Aug. 14, an Ontario judge granted an application to put Victoria Gold Corp. into receivership, after ruling the company wasn’t doing enough to address the catastrophe and lacked sufficient funding to do the work.
What’s at stake?
For the water and wildlife: “The threat to the environment is real,” mining reporter Niall McGee told me. The site isn’t located in a particularly remote spot – about 80 kilometres north of the village of Mayo. “So there are concerns about groundwater contamination potentially affecting that population.”
For the First Nation: The mine is on the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun. “Its members fish, hunt and trap in the vicinity of the mine,” McGee said. Dozens of fish have already been killed by surface water contamination.
For the territory and the mining industry: An independent investigation into the spill could present findings that impose new regulations on the sector. The government will likely examine the method of heap leaching, the gold-processing technology used at Eagle but banned in other jurisdictions.
“If the Yukon government were to ban heap leaching, that would have a chilling effect on new investment in certain types of gold projects,” McGee said.
What’s next?
Crews on the site are facing an intense period of work over the next few months to install environmental protection before winter freeze-up arrives.
The biggest obstacle appears to be the threat of storage ponds at the mine overflowing and causing another major spill. The government confirmed on Friday that two giant storage ponds containing toxic cyanide from the June rock slide at the Eagle mine in the Yukon are nearing capacity owing to the inability to treat water tainted by the catastrophe, raising the risk of yet another spill.
“And with wet weather expected next month, the situation looks precarious,” McGee said.
Before Victoria Gold was placed into receivership, the government had issued many directives to the company – some of which, former executives said, “were not sound on an engineering basis.”
Now, after fighting for control of the cleanup, the territory’s government finds itself in the spotlight.
Charted
High prices are pushing more Canadians to call it an early night, Jason Kirby writes. Stiff prices for drinks and the high cost of dining out have caught up with Canadian consumers, leading more people to spend their evenings at home this past spring.
Happening this week
- Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks at the Institute of International Finance and The Canadian Bankers Association Forum tomorrow.
- CIBC hosts its annual Eastern Institutional Investor Conference in Montreal on Thursday. The meeting is expected to hear from top executives from a range of Canadian companies – including BCE Inc., which recently announced a deal to sell its stake in MLSE.
- Statistics Canada is set on Friday to release its gross domestic product by industry figures for July.
- Notable earnings include Canadian investment manager AGF Management on Wednesday, BlackBerry on Thursday and Canadian apparel and accessory retailer Aritzia Inc. on Friday.
Morning markets
Global markets were mixed near record highs in the wake of last week’s outsized interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve as investors pondered which central bank may go next. Wall Street futures were in positive territory, while TSX futures pointed lower.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.18 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.17 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.45 per cent and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.32 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a holiday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.06 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 73.80 U.S. cents.