The Yukon government says mercury levels that “exceeded the water quality objective” were found in a creek near the site where a mine’s ore containment facility failed, causing a torrent of cyanide-contaminated rock to escape in June.
A statement from the government says high levels of cyanide and dissolved metals continue to be detected in the groundwater at testing sites closest to the Eagle Gold mine slide where millions of tonnes of ore was released.
The statement Friday says officials aren’t seeing unsafe levels of cyanide in the downstream environment, but on Sept. 24 and 26, “the mercury level exceeded the water quality objective at one monitoring station” south of the site.
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The statement says the government is gathering more information to understand the data and its impacts on the environment 480 kilometres north of Whitehorse.
Questions about the mercury were directed to the Department of Environment, which said it would provide answers to those questions early next week.
The mine owner, Victoria Gold, is in receivership, and the Yukon government announced in August that an independent review of what went wrong is underway.
The court-ordered receivership began after the mine’s heap leach pad failed and about two million tonnes of cyanide-laced rock broke through containment on June 24.
An Ontario court appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. as receiver over the company after the Yukon government “lost confidence” in Victoria Gold’s ability to handle clean-up efforts, court documents say.
Two years before the disastrous ore slide and spill of cyanide solution, the former head of the Yukon Water Board accused the mine’s owner of violating conditions of its water licence.
Roger Lockwood, then director of the Yukon Water Board, told a court that Victoria Gold “flouted” conditions of the licence, increasing environmental risks while saving millions by allegedly failing to re-contour slopes at the mine.
Lockwood, a former police officer, made the claims in a Yukon Supreme Court case, and estimated the company “saved more than $4 million through non-compliance with the conditions of the water licence,” a Yukon Supreme Court ruling says.