The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun is concerned that Victoria Gold Corp. VGCX-T and the Yukon government are soft-pedalling the impact of a suspected large-scale cyanide spill this week at a gold mine in the territory.
Giant piles of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed on Monday at an outdoors heap leach gold processing facility at the Eagle gold mine in central Yukon, triggering a landslide that likely released the toxic chemical into the environment.
The mine, on the traditional territory of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, is located roughly 375 kilometres north of Whitehorse and 85 kilometres north of the village of Mayo. “We are not satisfied with industry and public governments response to this catastrophic event,” said Dawna Hope, chief of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. Public statements appear “to be downplaying the seriousness of what has happened and how this will have long term impacts,” she added.
Whitehorse-based Victoria Gold has so far put out only one statement on the accident. A phone number listed on Monday’s press release to reach the company’s chief executive officer John McConnell is out of service. Mr. McConnell has not responded to multiple e-mail requests for comment.
The Yukon government has been mostly communicating publicly on behalf of Victoria Gold. On Wednesday, it said that the company has built dams to hold back contaminated water, which is being pumped into storage ponds.
Government staff have been monitoring water on-site, as well as water upstream and downstream of the mine. So far, officials have said that the risk of contamination is “extremely low.”
The territorial government held a one-hour technical briefing with media on Friday, but representatives were unable to answer many elementary questions. Among the queries the government representatives could not answer was how much cyanide the company had in the processing facility before the rock slide occurred, and how much of the deadly chemical may have escaped into the environment. The representatives were also unable to answer the extent of the time lag between the rock slide, and the company starting to pump water contaminated with cyanide back into storage ponds.
Heap leaching involves stacking mined ore into outdoor piles and then sprinkling it with water laced with cyanide. The solution causes gold to leach from the ore into a lined pond. The mixture is then pumped to an enclosed facility where the precious metal is collected.
Heap leach pads must be monitored continuously to make sure that the rock piles are stable and that the cyanide solution is effectively percolating through the ore. The facility at the Eagle mine was designed to hold as much as 92 million tonnes of ore.
Neither Victoria Gold nor the Yukon government has given any guidance into what triggered the rock slide.
The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun is concerned the spill has contaminated drinking water, the land, animals and fish. “Alaska and Canada just signed an agreement in April, 2024, in support of a seven-year moratorium, suspending fishing to help the species recover,” said Ms. Hope. “This disaster has implications for salmon spawning rivers and their habitats.”
Ms. Hope said she is in the process of hiring independent advisers to access the situation. She’s also concerned about other First Nations that live downstream and advised them to heighten their water-monitoring efforts.
Cord Hamilton, a consulting engineer who attended the technical session on Friday on behalf of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, said that almost certainly there has been a significant release of cyanide into the local environment. He estimated that between 800,000 and a million cubic metres is draining from the area “in an uncontrolled manner.” He said that the company has capacity to store less than half of that on-site.
“This is a dire situation,” he told government staff at the briefing.
Victoria Gold has a history of heap leach incidents at the mine.
The Yukon government has a pending court case against the company, alleging earlier mismanagement of water in its heap leach. The Yukon News reported that charges include the failure to contain a large cyanide solution spill in 2021.
Victoria Gold in January of this year experienced a smaller rock slide at the heap leach pad which it managed to contain.
Niall McGee