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

Activities on site

• Work continues on site to advance critical environmental protection and human health and safety measures in the four priority areas of contaminated water storage, water treatment, groundwater monitoring and heap stability.
• Work continues on the safety berm across the slide area. The safety berm will allow for groundwater monitoring wells to be safely installed to intercept contaminated water for treatment.
• An additional lined storage pond was completed last week to increase the site’s water storage capacity and another storage pond is scheduled to be completed in the coming days.

Water monitoring

• From September 6 to 12, low and “non-detect” concentrations of cyanide were observed at all water monitoring locations in Haggart Creek.
• All concentrations of cyanide detected in Haggart Creek during this period were below the relevant guideline for the protection of aquatic life.
• This is still a dynamic situation that always has the potential to change and water monitoring downstream of the mine site is ongoing.
• 18 new groundwater wells have been installed on the mine site and water sample results from some of these wells have begun to come in.
• As anticipated, high levels of cyanide are being detected in some wells, particularly those closest to the failure slide, and closest to Dublin Gulch.
• Based on the information being gathered from these new wells, work is underway to increase our understanding of how groundwater travels through the area and determine how it will affect the surrounding environment, and to inform plans for treating contaminated groundwater.
• We will continue to provide updates as more results become available and as we learn more about the groundwater situation.

Fish monitoring

• Fish fences are in place to prevent fish from entering the area adjacent to the mine site, on Haggart Creek.
• Technical experts from the Government of Yukon and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun are working closely with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to help ensure fall migration patterns of fish are not unnecessarily disrupted.
• There have been no new reports of further fish die-offs in Haggart Creek.