What the Heap?

Understanding the cyanide disaster at Eagle Mine

Written by Paula Gomez Villalba and Nicole Schafenacker | [post_published]

On June 24, 2024, the heap leach at Victoria’s Gold’s Eagle Mine near Mayo, Yukon, on the traditional territory of the First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND), failed, causing a slide that released 300,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water into the ecosystem.

The cycle that kept hundreds of millions of litres of toxic solution contained broke.

Victoria Gold was unprepared for the crisis, and in the months following the disaster failed to take adequate steps to mitigate the damage, while their financial prospects tanked. Late last summer a court put Victoria Gold into receivership, transferring control of the mine site and the company’s finances to more competent hands. Still, there are huge challenges to overcome, like containing the contaminated water, keeping storage ponds from leaking and overflowing, and stabilizing what remains of the heap leach.

This disaster is yet the latest example showing the Yukon is far behind when it comes to responsible mining. A public inquiry can help us change that. We must understand what policies, decisions, and actions from government and Victoria Gold management led to this disaster.

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Water contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals is still seeping into the ground. It has reached local waterways, including Haggart Creek in the South McQuesten watershed, home to grayling, and Yukon River Salmon.

Here, in the South McQuesten River watershed, people fish, hunt, and pick berries. Moose and grizzly bears care for their young, and thousands of birds find refuge during migration. There is no doubt that this disaster will change how people interact with the area.

Quotes from CBC News feature by Julien Greene highlighting people who live near the Eagle Mine Disaster site: Troubled water.

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How did the Eagle Mine heap leach work?
To better grasp why this disaster requires immediate action, it’s helpful to understand how heap leaching generally works.
1. A toxic cyanide solution was applied to the top of the heap leach pad.
2. The heap leach pad is where rock containing gold (also called ore) was piled up over a protective liner that protects the ground underneath.
3. The toxic solution seeped down through the rocks, dissolving the gold and collecting in an in-heap pond underneath the pile on the pad.
4. A pump system collected the solution from the in-heap pond to a plant where the gold was extracted, and the solution cycled back through the same process.
5. Farther down from the embankment, a lined storage pond was available to catch solution overflowing from the in-heap pond in emergency situations, like large rainfalls and pump failures. It was small, able to only hold 3-days worth of overflow solution.
The breakdown of the heap leach leaves the nearby lands and water facing an uncertain future at each step of the process. In an update from last fall (before the snowfall), FNNND reported over 600 million litres of cyanide solution remained at Eagle Mine, in surface ponds and circulating through the damaged heap facility, with minimal water treatment available.
What happened?

In the disaster, the mine’s heap leach facility, a huge pile of rock over which cyanide solution is cycled to extract gold from the ore, failed. The resulting slide and damage to the facility released over 300,000 cubic metres of cyanide-contaminated water into the ecosystem. A month after the initial failure, the territorial government stepped in to begin groundwater interception, and later a full response coordinated by the territorial government with the FNNND emergency response team and federal government.

Even now, eight months later, cyanide is still infiltrating into the environment, with leaks recently reported from a ruptured pipe and from a storage pond meant to contain contaminated water.

Victoria Gold, the owner of Eagle Mine, had a history of violations, unrealized plans, and broken promises, and repeatedly failing to follow the requirements of their operating licenses or meet deadlines to bring the site into compliance. Mining failures like this should never happen again.

“Yukon Government has a lax approach to permitting, compliance, monitoring, and enforcement of mineral activity in the Yukon, and this approach was reflected in YG’s oversight-or lack thereof-of the Eagle Gold Mine… [including] allowing Victoria Gold Corp to operate the Heap Leach Facility without proven cyanide treatment capacity, contrary to the conditions of its Water Use Licence” — First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun letter to the Auditor General of Canada

There are a lot of questions unanswered, and a public inquiry is the only way forward to give the South McQuesten watershed the justice and respect it deserves. Tell Yukon government there must be a public inquiry.

Why is a public inquiry needed?

The Yukon government has committed to a technical review of the heap leach failure and, while this is important work, it’s not enough to break the long pattern of failed mines in the Yukon. We must look at why the heap leach failed—not only the narrow ways of how it failed. A technical review looks at this disaster in isolation, focusing solely on the technical and physical ways the heap leach failed like engineering design and operational decisions, but a public inquiry goes beyond that.
With the authority to subpoena witnesses, documents, and expert testimony, a public inquiry would also investigate broader systemic issues that may have contributed to the Eagle Mine disaster. It would examine whether oversight, permitting processes, and enforcement were effective or if regulatory gaps played a role. A public inquiry would also allow for community voices, impacted First Nations, and independent experts to provide testimony.
A public inquiry looks at all the evidence with accountability and transparency, and would help rebuild the trust this disaster has damaged. The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun has called on the Yukon government to launch a full public inquiry and urged all Yukoners to join FNNND in these calls.

“A public inquiry is essential to look at how mines in Yukon are approved, regulated, inspected, and enforced. Without an understanding of what happened, justice cannot be served, and Yukon First Nations and Yukon mining operators cannot mitigate this from ever happening again.” — Call to action #4 from emergency-response.nndfn.com

You can help. Sign the open letter in support of an independent public inquiry.
The receivership of the Eagle Mine was positive news. What does it mean?

Victoria Gold’s response to the heap leach disaster did not inspire confidence that the lands, waters, and people downstream of the heap leach were in good hands. The company failed to communicate openly with Yukoners, the territorial government, and First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, who they had an explicit agreement to communicate with. Victoria Gold repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for containing and treating contaminated water, and couldn’t even show significant progress. They also couldn’t show that they had the funds or capacity to properly contain and remediate the disaster. The company was placed into receivership for these and other reasons.

This means that a court, after hearing evidence from the Yukon government and First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, appointed a third party, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to administer the assets and liabilities formerly under the control of Victoria Gold at the direction of the Yukon government. This allows the Yukon government and First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun to make more collaborative decisions and plans. The receivership also made sure that the disaster response was getting the resources it needed, and that the response was much more transparent.

While some have argued that the site should have been left in Victoria Gold’s hands and the company given a chance to find financing, this would be a very risky approach, especially given the territory’s checkered history with failed mines. In the past, the government often waited too long to step in while failing companies allowed environmental risks and costs to escalate at soon-to-be abandoned mine sites.
Where can I learn more?

Join the call for a public inquiry

What the Heap?

Understanding the cyanide disaster at Eagle Mine

Map of the McQuesten River (Et’o Nyäk Tagé in Northern Tutchone) Watershed

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