The Yukon government has launched an independent review to identify the causes of the heap leach accident at Victoria Gold’s (TSXV: VGCX) Eagle mine in June, while an Indigenous group said it feels excluded from the process.
The three-member board will review the design construction, operation, maintenance and monitoring of the heap leach facility, the government said in a news release on Friday.
“Our government recognizes the seriousness of the heap leach failure that occurred at the Eagle Gold mine and its environmental impacts,” John Streicker, Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) said. “As a responsible regulator, the (EMR department) 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 launch of the probe comes just over two months after Victoria halted operations at Eagle following a failure in its heap leach pad that released millions of tonnes of ore and cyanide-containing solution. Amid Victoria’s efforts to clean up the site, the Yukon government wasn’t satisfied with its progress and appointed PwC the company’s receiver on Aug. 14.
Three-expert panel
The three geotechnical and mine engineering experts on the panel are Jean-Marie Konrad, Lee Sawatsky and Mark E. Smith. Each member has decades of experience in their respective mining fields.
The review is expected to take six to eight months to complete and its results will be made public. It will be funded through the PwC receivership, which was forwarded $50 million from Yukon in August for the immediate needs of the site reclamation. The larger cleanup effort is estimated to cost $100 million to $150 million.
A $104-million surety bond for reclamation that the government holds with Victoria hasn’t yet been used, the government said.
‘Erasing’ First Nation’s role
The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) has reviewed draft terms of reference for the investigation and is invited to join the board process, the government said.
But the FNNND hasn’t fully welcomed the announcement about the review, saying it’s concerned the government is trying to erase its role in the investigation, the Canadian Press reported last week.
The First Nation said an independent review won’t be able to thoroughly investigate the disaster and wants a full public inquiry. It can only support the review if the FNNND can co-manage the process and appoint its own advisers to work with the government.
The FNNND was the first to call for an independent investigation into the accident, and in its release in early July also demanded a halt to mining activity in its traditional territory, on which Eagle sits. It later clarified that it seeks a pause to mining activities and not a total halt.
Potential reforms
Based on the review’s outcomes, the Yukon government is to work to identify changes to practices and compliance that could reduce or eliminate such potential failures in the future.
Understanding the causes of the Eagle mine’s failure will also help inform remediation at the site, possible future restarting of mining there and other operations in the Yukon, officials said.
Days after PwC took control, the Victoria board resigned and CEO John McConnell was dismissed from his position. Yukon said it didn’t intend to drive the company out of business and believes mining could eventually restart at the site. Victoria and PwC haven’t responded to requests for comment since the accident.
Is the engineer that designed the leach pad being looked into for competency?
ALWAYS THE SAME – exclusion of local land stewards, big consulting an 12 months to muck around and come up with a plan to take anther 12 months ….. $wallowing re$ource$ along the way ……