Yukon may take over the clean-up of the damage from the Victoria Gold disaster

Victoria has issued three press releases since the accident. The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment. Haney called Victoria’s lack of communication about the accident and cleanup “unfortunate and unhelpful.” The exact cause of the accident is under investigation.

“Cannot tolerate the treatment”

Authorities have ordered Victoria to increase its storage capacity for contaminated water to 150,000 cubic metres by July 29 as existing ponds are almost full.

“As a temporary measure, the company is creating additional storage space by pumping water from the storage ponds through the pile,” which it will do for 10 to 15 days, Kelly Constable, director of mineral resources in the EMR division, said during the meeting, to hold the water until it can be treated and released into the environment.

However, Constable added that Victoria’s waterworks cannot treat all the contaminants in the water and is therefore trying to upgrade the plant with the help of Lincoln Engineering. This upgrade could take a few weeks.

“It was not foreseeable that the contamination levels would be this high,” Haney said.

‘Lack of transparency’

While these solutions may be sufficient temporarily, they are actually the lesser of two evils, says Adrienne Hill of the Treaty Implementation Department of the First Nation of Na-cho Nyak Dun (FNNND).

“Returning contaminated water to the platform as an emergency measure because there is no place to put it is not ideal,” Hill said in an interview after the meeting. “We don’t believe the Yukon government is being transparent about how serious the situation is.”

As part of the water treatment measures, the company relocated key on-site personnel to temporary overnight camps near the mine, which The northern miner learned about it earlier this week through a leaked document.

“The existing camp is within the path of the (landslide) area,” Haney said, adding that Victoria had decided to relocate the workers on its own initiative and without any direction from the government.

Victoria has met government deadlines to develop remediation plans, including for water flow, slope stability and water treatment, government spokesman John Thompson said.

Lower cyanide risk

Tests of groundwater samples in the area on July 5 and 10 found detectable levels of thiocyanate, a stable and less toxic form of cyanide for which there are no aquatic habitat limits, Williams said.

While the government must still send its water samples to a laboratory in British Columbia for testing, it has asked for the processing time to be shortened to five to seven days.

“Great concern about the water”

Even though the thiocyanate found in the groundwater tests may not be as toxic as cyanide, this result hardly reassures the FNNND, says director Dawna Hope.

“We are very concerned that (cyanide) remains in the groundwater,” she said The northern miner“We’re not sure where these numbers come from in terms of groundwater. We’re not sure how deep the wells are.”

After the June 24 accident, First Nation teams examined the surface water, looking for evidence of damage to plants and animals. Hope said a dead fish was found.

Lidar tests have also been conducted using drones to monitor groundwater, and the technical team is currently reviewing 17,000 images, Hill said.

“Break in mining”

Hope clarified that while the First Nation called for a moratorium on mining activities on its traditional territory following the Eagle disaster, it is not against mining. Rather, it wants a temporary pause while the cumulative impacts of the disaster can be assessed. After that, sustainable mining activities should resume.

Several contractors associated with the FNNND worked at Eagle, and the cessation of work there has forced them to seek work elsewhere. Hill said the economic loss from the cessation of royalty payments following the accident was “significant.”