Work on containment berm at Eagle mine should take 4 weeks, says Yukon gov't

Construction of a containment berm to deal with contaminated water at the troubled Eagle mine in the Yukon should take about four weeks to complete, according to officials with the territorial government.

And the territory is defending its timeline to complete the work on the berm, after being accused by former Victoria Gold officials of being relatively "passive" since the mine was placed in receivership last month.

"Well, I would say it [the berm]'s being constructed now, and I'm very confident in the excellent engineering team and construction team that's doing the work now," said Lauren Haney, deputy minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, at a media briefing on Friday morning.

"I would also say that at any time Victoria Gold was certainly welcome to have taken the objective and the design parameters provided to it and built on that with their own expertise and make it happen. They chose not to."

Government officials say construction of the berm is an essential part of the ongoing emergency response at the Eagle mine site after June's major heap leach slide, which released hundreds of millions of litres of toxic cyanide solution into the environment.     

Erin Dowd, Yukon's manager of major mine licensing described the berm as a "critical development that is necessary to improve safety conditions on site and provide the ability to capture and treat any contaminated groundwater in the area."

In July, the government issued an order to Victoria Gold requiring the company to begin construction work on a berm within five days. Then last month, the government went to court arguing that the company was not doing the needed work, and the court appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as receiver of the mine.

Haney said on Friday that the order issued to Victoria Gold earlier still stands.

"The rationale behind it stands, the urgency stands," she said. 

"I think that all of the directions, including the direction around the berm, were issued commensurate with the urgency of the situation — and it was reasonable for us to assume that the company who had care and control of the site at the time had the means to execute the work that needed to be done."

Haney said one of the reasons that work is only now underway on that berm — which will include dozens of groundwater monitoring wells — is because it took time to ensure there were sufficient accommodations at the remote mine site for workers. There are now almost 150 people working on site, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Friday's briefing came after the Yukon government fired back at a former Victoria Gold official who accused the territory of demanding too much in the immediate aftermath of the heap leach failure, with unrealistic timelines and expectations. That former company engineer also suggested that the lack of media briefings in the last few weeks showed the territory had been less transparent since the company was placed in receivership.

The Yukon government responded earlier this week and accused former company officials of seeking to "criticize, rather than assist in resolving the catastrophe."

No water treatment on site yet

Officials at Friday's briefing said that initial water-quality results from groundwater monitoring wells have shown impacts of cyanide contamination close to the slide, but not in areas close to the nearby Haggart Creek. They also said that work was underway to ensure there's enough storage capacity on site for contaminated water.

Dowd said water storage and management is a "daily focus" right now as the existing storage ponds are essentially full.  

"Managing the water is our most important part of the work right now. So while they are filling, we have a water storage pond that is coming online in the next 24 hours that will provide additional capacity," said Dowd.

"And we are anticipating that that will be online before there is any need for discharges to the environment."

She said there is no way yet to treat the contaminated water at the mine site, but a new operator on site was making modifications to the existing treatment plant and "conducting tests to determine how to provide effective water treatment at the site."

Friday's briefing also involved a representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who spoke about the receiver's role in the ongoing response. Michelle Grant acknowledged that it's unusual for a court-appointed receiver to speak to media, but said the Eagle mine was "very different" from most other files she's worked on over the years.

"Typically, the primary purpose of a receivership is to liquidate assets to maximize value for the creditors. However, in this receivership, the main goal is to complete the environmental remediation necessary for Victoria Gold to comply with the regulatory orders that have been issued," Grant said.

She said "real progress" had been made on that compliance, but "we're not out of the woods yet."

"We believe with focus, collaboration and the funding we've secured from the Yukon government, the prospects for solving these problems have greatly increased," she said.

"We appreciate the extraordinary circumstances of this receivership and the public interest, and we are committed to transparency."

Grant said PricewaterhouseCoopers is currently working on a report to update the court on what's been happening, and that that report will also be publicly available on the receiver's website.

Grant was also asked at Friday's briefing whether media might visit the Eagle mine site before winter to see firsthand the work being done. 

"At this point the site is closed to media," she said. "I can take the request under consideration."