Work is underway by the receiver of Yukon’s Eagle Gold Mine to build a settling pond to reduce copper in the treated water to reach licensed limits.
The efforts remain ongoing to protect the landscape surrounding a heap leach failure and landslide at the Victoria Gold Corporation’s Eagle Mine on June 24, 2024. A court appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as receiver to take control of the assets of Victoria Gold Corp., including the Eagle Mine, under the federal Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, after a hearing on August 14 last year.
In the coming weeks, once the settling pond is completed, water discharge is expected to meet all required conditions, Yukon officials announced on February 13. PwC’s water treatment specialist is currently investigating additional treatment steps to reduce copper prior to discharge.
PwC plans to release up to approximately 3,000 m³ of water per day until the settling pond is available for use, to ensure water levels on site remain at manageable levels during the spring snow melt.
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Yukon officials additionally noted that a suspected leak found in a newly-constructed containment pond in late December is enabling contaminated water to flow into Haggart Creek. Water quality monitoring downstream of the mine site indicates that the leak is releasing contaminants, as levels of cyanide, cobalt, chloride and nickel have increased in Haggart Creek.
Recent data indicates cyanide levels above the B.C. acute aquatic life guideline of 0.010 mg/L, reaching up to 0.021 mg/L.
