In keeping with its promise to investigate causes and factors contributing to the June 24, 2024, heap-leach failure at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold mine, the Government of Yukon has launched an Independent Review Board. The Independent Review Board process is consistent with the Yukon’s Mine Waste Facilities Management Guidelines.
The independent review is a part of the Government of Yukon’s response, as a responsible regulator, to the catastrophic failure and its impact on the environment and human health and safety.
The purpose of the independent review is to identify the causes of the heap leach failure. This will include a review of the design, construction, operation, maintenance and monitoring of the heap leach facility. Conducting an independent technical review of a major mine infrastructure failure is common practice across the world.
The following three highly qualified technical experts have been selected to be on the Independent Review Board:
- Jean-Marie Konrad, M.Sc., Ph.D., FCAE, FEIC
- Les Sawatsky, P.Eng., M.Sc.
- Mark E. Smith, P.E., P.Eng.
The First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun has reviewed draft Terms of Reference and has an open invitation to join the Independent Review Board process at any time.
The Government of Yukon is committed to a rigorous and thorough review and to maintaining the independence of the board’s process and outcomes. The independent review should take six to eight months to complete and results will be made public. Based upon the outcome of the review, the Yukon government will seek to identify changes aimed at reducing or eliminating the potential for a similar failure occurring in the future. This could include changes to practices, processes and compliance, monitoring and enforcement activity.
Understanding the causes of the failure will help inform remediation of the failure, possible options for a future restart of mine operations at Eagle Gold, as well as other future operations in the Yukon. The independent review will be funded through the receivership.
Our government recognizes the seriousness of the heap leach failure that occurred at the Eagle Gold mine and its environmental impacts. As a responsible regulator, the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources must determine the causes of the failure to inform future decisions about the Eagle Gold project, as well as other future projects in the territory. The Independent Review Board is the most expedient process for determining the causes of the heap leach facility failure and will lead to changes that will help to prevent another event like this one from occurring in the future.
The members of the Independent Review Board are as follows:
Jean-Marie Konrad, M.Sc., Ph.D., FCAE, FEIC
Dr. Konrad is a geotechnical expert with a master’s degree from Université Laval and a doctorate degree from the University of Alberta, where he contributed to the development of frost heave mechanics. He worked in the private sector as a geotechnical specialist for Lavalin and James-Bay hydro electric Corporation, as a research officer at the National Research Council with respect to the geotechnical aspects of the artificial drilling islands in the Beaufort Sea, development of interpretation techniques of in situ testing data in weak soils and academia at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) as associate professor in the department of Earth Sciences and Université Laval (Québec) as professor of Civil Engineering. From 1998 to 2008, he was the Chairholder of an NSERC industrial research chair on frost action in civil engineering structures. From 2009 to 2019, Dr. Konrad was the Chairholder of an NSERC/Hydro Quebec industrial research chair on the optimization of the life cycle of earth dams.
Dr Konrad is the author or co-author of over 150 technical papers. For the last 25 years, he was also a consultant for various projects related to artificial freezing, permafrost engineering, dam construction and safety assessment and was a member on several independent peer review boards in the mining industry.
Les Sawatsky, P.Eng., M.Sc.
Mr. Sawatsky is a Director of Teleo Engineering and serves as a senior civil engineer with over 40 years of experience in mine developments, mine closure planning, reclamation drainage, mine drainage, water supply and mine tailings management. His experience covers mines in Canada, the United States and overseas, including temperate, tropical and Arctic regions.
Mr. Sawatsky has undertaken numerous mine water management and tailings management projects for oil sands, coal and metal mines in North America and Asia. His experience includes mine and plant water balance analysis, development and operation of mine water balance models, minesite drainage, tailings handling, design of tailings disposal sites, flood control, design of heap leach facilities, water balance studies of heap leach operations, mine baseline hydrology studies, river diversions, seepage studies, sedimentation ponds, mine water supply, river intakes, river control works, mine hydroelectric power generation, erosion control and environmental impact assessments.
He is the author of many conference papers, chapters of books and other technical publications pertaining to mine water resources management, mine closure planning and geomorphic approach to landform design and erosion control. Les is the author of a chapter of a textbook Mine Pit Lakes – Closure and Management (Hydrologic and Geomorphic Design of Pit Lakes for Long-Term Sustainability). He leads workshops on water management, mine closure and erosion control. Les served as conference chair and directed planning of Mine Closure 2011 in Lake Louise, an international conference that attracted 600 delegates from around the world. He served as conference chair of Mine Closure 2015 that was held in Vancouver, B.C.
Mark E. Smith, P.E., P.Eng.
Mr. Smith is a professional engineer with 45 years of experience in gold heap leaching, including the last 12 years working on several cold climate projects. He principally works as a senior reviewer, member of geotechnical review boards and on failure prevention and response teams. Mark holds a master’s degree in civil and geotechnical engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. He started his career in the Nevada goldfields working for Canadian miner Rayrock Mines. He later co-founded and managed, for nearly 25 years, a consulting and engineering company with a staff of 500 and offices in seven countries. His experience includes over a decade working in the Yukon, including on the owner’s teams for Coffee Gold, Macpass and Mactung and consulting for the Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources on the Mine Waste Facilities Management Guidelines and review of cyanide management practices at the Eagle Gold Mine.
Mark is currently on the failure response team for SSR’s Çöpler mine in Turkey. He is currently on the corporate heap leach review boards for Barrick, Glencore, Coeur and Minsur. He is chair of the technical steering committee for Brazilian Nickel’s heap leach project. As part of the closure of a large gold mine in Peru, he is on the review committee for capping, geotechnical and drainage issues. He also sits on the advisory board for the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Laura Seeley
Cabinet Communications
867-332-7627
Laura.Seeley@yukon.ca
John Thompson
Energy, Mines and Resources
867-332-6042
John.Thompson@yukon.ca