The dozer operator states equipment broke main linesFrom Northern Miner
The Northern Miner has not verified any of this.
Caused by over-leaching
An investigation is ongoing to determine the accident’s cause and Victoria is cooperating with third party technical experts from the Yukon government and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyk Dun, it said on Friday.
While the operator acknowledges he’s not an engineer, he believes the accident was caused by excessive leaching of the ore and improper maintenance of the leach pad.
He claims that pipes carrying the cyanide-bearing solution throughout the pad would break and nobody fixed them. Cyanide is used to separate gold from ore.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that they got broken underneath all the weight,” he said. “And then once you break that big line, it’s just massive amounts of cyanide that would go in there.”
About 4 million tonnes of ore, representing about 10% of the total on the pad moved during the accident, Victoria said. Of that, about 2 million tonnes moved beyond the pad’s embankment.
There are very good detailed records of how much fluid went in and how much was withdrawn. I'm sure that will be part of the investigation.
IMO
I can also say that as part of the investigation not just the operator(s) but also mine managment, stakeholders and involved professionals will be called in to comment. The operators assertions of massive leaks on the main line are going to be reviewed and comments made as to the assertion the equipment causing the failure or if there was bad oversite or just a bad design.
My interest is the environement and can the mine be repaired (HLP). I still stand with the fact thet there will be a report issued (as stated) that will speak towards a repair. Also it is obvious that if the $ numbers don't work the mine will not re-open, it then becomes and investigative process (like many others) and goes into remediation and maintenance like many others. I'm ot going to get into it but there are mines (yes here in the YUKON) that have gone into repair and maintenece for a long time and then re-opened because funds became available to clean up.
But the bashers and promo artists just want to play the penny games here. That said if you look at the daily trades by the banks, investment houses and traders there doing the same thing. Personally I don't care it's all gambling. I also think some of the mose vocal here are the ones that lost a lot "gambling" on a dialy basis.
Now to all the retail investors in the mine (the majority share holders) and I have had stories of 100k dropping to 8k in the space of 1 trading day, these ppl are the real ones hurt. If the lost is in a say TFSA it's the worst situation, no clain of loss. If it's an open account at least the loss can be claimed. I am not a US expert but imagine there s something along the same lines.