RE:Surprise! Ex-Victoria Gold employee writes inAnd then factor in the latest (Sep 13th) YTG Update:
Government of Yukon provides update on heap leach failure response at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Mine | Government of Yukon Activities on-site
- Work continues on site to advance critical environmental protection and human health and safety measures in the four priority areas of: contaminated water storage, water treatment, groundwater monitoring, and heap stability.
- Efforts have also focused on ensuring safe camp facilities for the workers on site.
- Construction of the berm continues.
- Yukon government wishes to acknowledge the work that site staff and contractors are doing to progress remediation efforts.
Water monitoring
- From August 29 to September 5, low and “non-detect” concentrations of cyanide were observed at all water monitoring locations in Haggart Creek.
- All concentrations of cyanide detected in Haggart Creek during this period were below the relevant guideline for the protection of aquatic life.
- Water monitoring in the receiving environment is ongoing to ensure any changes to current conditions are detected
- Numerous groundwater wells have been installed and water quality data is anticipated to be available next week.
Fish monitoring
- Mitigation measures continue to be in place to prevent fish from entering the area adjacent to the mine site, on Haggart Creek.
- These measures consist of installed fish fences, prohibiting fish passage into this area.
- The Government of Yukon and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun are working closely with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to ensure fall migration patterns of fish are not disrupted.
- There have been no new reports of further fish die-offs in Haggart Creek.
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So it would appear that since receivership, they still haven't built the berm that was so urgently required, they've drilled a few monitoring wells, built a smaller containment pond than what VG management was ordered to build, and diverted water flow in Haggert Creek so any contaiminated water can be captured and treated and made some changes to the water treatment facility.
And now with "no new reports of further fish die-offs in Haggart Creek", where's the crisis that was touted by YTG that required VG be immediately put into receivership? PWC recently reported that VG has / had roughly $840 million in assets at the time of the collapse and that's about $400 million short of the real value. And VG had $190 million US / ~ $235 million CAD in secured debt. With gold recently having breached $2,600 US and likely headed to $3,000 soon I highly doubt VG gold could not have survived this though a mix of creative financing and share issuance had YTG ordered VG to divert contaminated water from Haggart Creek immedately following the collapse. The 68 dead fish seemed to be the final straw. Yet the Haggart Creek water diversion for capture and remediation sure seems to have required a small amount of work and likely very little cost yet has had such a huge effect on environmental risk mitigation. One would think that YTG experts would have identified the Haggart Creek water diversion as a critical step very early on in the process but somehow this didn't occur until 10 to 12 week later?
I've said since the collapse that YTG as the regulator has significant responsibility and liability in all this and a history of missteps that by the YTG's own Premier admission date back about 50 years (an dthey need to do better (gee ya think?). The many Yukon mines that are currently under care and maintenance validate just how messed up things are in the Yukon. It's no wonder the Yukon FNs have little trust for the YTG mining authorities in charge of their future and want to establish their own independent 3rd party experts to investigate the VG landslide.
I for one am awaiting the 3rd party investigative results to be completed and made public and hope the FNs actually do proceed with their own 3rd party investigation because a FNs report won't likely hide the gross negligence of the YTG's mining authorities both historically and in the recent case of the VG collapse. Things that will undoubtedly come out of a FN's paid for expert investigation that won't come out in a YTG paid for investigation will be questions like how many slides has VG gold had at the Eagle Mine since the mine went into production and what did YTG authorities do to plan for and prevent / mitigate a catastropic collapse like the one that occured at the Eagle Mine in June 2024? When it became evident that slides were occurring at Eagle, what did YTG do to identify the cause and shore up / strengthen the toe of the HLF, what plans did YTG put in place to deal with the so called "unlikely' event that was obviously a bit more likely as time passed? The information that members of this bullboard have uncovered and posted here since the collapse should make YTG authorities and lawyers very nervous.
In the meantime, the new ground water wells and water tests are going to be a main point of focus and apparently any contaminated ground water can be captured and remediated from these wells if needed so just how big of a crisis is this really? Big enough to force VG into receivership, wipe out the company overnight and leave a multitude of investors and unsecured creditors and contractors wondering if they'll ever recoup their losses? At this point it seems that the $150 million clean up costs are about $75 million too high notwithstanding that the newly retained experts no doubt have creative ways to spend money. Hopefully the monetary spend restrictions included in the receivership court order curtail any blank cheque spending ideas that might exist.
For the VG retail shareholders here, this has been a nightmare for sure but I wouldn't rule out a multi-billion dollar future class action lawsuit on behalf of VG shareholders against YTG and several engineering firms just yet and that's separate from the lawsuit that Yukon FNs will launch once their independent experts sort through this mess. One thing is for sure, the lawyers will be sure to get their share and if they're going after government it'll be worth their while!
My opinion only, please DYODD.
HB77