Victoria Gold's Eagle gold mine site north of Mayo, Yukon. Photo: Yukon Government
The Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation in Yukon says the company that owns the gold mine where there was a massive ore slide and cyanide spill should be removed from managing the cleanup.
The nation said in a statement that the Eagle Gold mine’s owner, Victoria Gold Corp., has failed to follow government directions and can’t be relied upon to fix the situation.
It says the nation is urging the Yukon government to “take immediate and robust action” to make sure mitigation efforts continue to “remedy and prevent” further environmental contamination from the site, which is on its traditional territory.
Yukon government officials said Thursday that some water samples taken downstream from the site where two million tonnes of contaminated ore spilled have shown cyanide levels that “significantly exceed” guidelines for aquatic life.
The First Nation’s statement says there should be a public inquiry into the disaster to look into “failures that caused this catastrophe and ensure it never happens again.”
Chief Dawna Hope says Victoria Gold’s public apologies and statements made by its CEO “ring hollow,” and the Na-Cho Nyak Dun have lost confidence in the company to be able to fix “this disaster they created in our traditional territory.”
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Brendan Mulligan, a senior scientist with the Yukon’s Department of Environment, said there’s been a “pattern of increasing cyanide levels” in water samples taken close to the site of the mine since a slide of contaminated ore in June.
He said samples taken further downstream show lower levels of the chemical due to dilution, and concentrations don’t go above drinking water guidelines.
Groundwater sampling hasn’t been done because of safety concerns over instability at the site of the mine disaster, where the mine’s heap leach facility failed on June 24, causing a massive slide of cyanide-contaminated ore and release of millions of litres of cyanide solution used in the gold extraction process.
He said groundwater monitoring will begin once it’s deemed safe, and officials continue to collaborate with the mine’s owner and the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation.
Cameron Sinclair, a senior fisheries biologist, said officials are monitoring both long- and short-term effects on fish populations in the nearby Haggart Creek, and tissue samples collected from fish have been sent to a lab for heavy metal accumulation testing.
