- Victoria Gold (TSX:VGCX) is shedding light on ongoing work at its Eagle mine in the Yukon, where a heap leach failure last month released more than 300 million litres of cyanide solution into the surrounding ecosystem
- The gold producer addresses worker safety, water treatment and infrastructure modifications to remediate environmental damage and reach a production restart decision
- Victoria Gold is a mineral explorer and producer focused on the Yukon
- Victoria Gold stock has given back 92.06 per cent since news of the cyanide spill hit the markets on June 24
Victoria Gold (TSX:VGCX) is shedding light on ongoing work at its Eagle mine in the Yukon, where a heap leach failure last month released more than 300 million litres of cyanide solution into the surrounding ecosystem.
In Tuesday’s new release, the company begins with a safety overview, stating that any work site exposed to risks from the spill is undergoing a “job hazard analysis” to ensure safe working conditions. While this analysis includes the designation of restricted zones pending third-party geotechnical and related reviews, Victoria Gold has taken it in its own hands to conduct a seismic survey to assess the heap leach facility embankment.
The company moves on to all things water, confirming that it continues to take daily water samples from multiple locations at the mine, many of them downstream from the incident. A total of seven of 134 downstream samples collected as of July 23 have come back positive for weak acid dissociable (WAD) cyanide, ranging from 5.2 to 9.3 parts per billion.
(Source: Victoria Gold)
These samples fall short of Victoria Gold’s downstream water quality objectives under its water-use license, which specify a maximum of 5 parts per billion WAD cyanide, although they meet guidelines for Canadian drinking water, which establish a maximum of 200 parts per billion free cyanide.
In terms of water storage, the company is expediting the construction of more containment ponds to maximize its contact and ground water pumping system, and it will soon deploy irrigation systems to areas of the heap leach facility unaffected by the incident to augment water treatment and discharge capacity and minimize the release of untreated water to the environment.
With eyes on safely discharging water in compliance with its water use license, the company has modified piping, added tank capacity and acquired a reverse osmosis plant as a final treatment stage. Additionally, it has modified its infrastructure to accommodate a process for cyanide destruction and metals precipitation. This process uses sodium hypochlorite to oxidize cyanide into an ammonia byproduct, which is further oxidized by chlorine to nitrogen gas. The company plans to discharge treated water in the next few days.
Though not significant compared to the initial incident, material continues to move within the heap leach facility, which is keeping the company in close contact with the Government of Yukon, the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun, the village of Mayo, and the Yukon Workers’ Safety and Compensation Board, among other regulatory authorities, to determine the cause of the spill.
Production at the Eagle mine remains suspended and Victoria Gold is currently unable to offer investors any insights as to a future restart.
About Victoria Gold
Victoria Gold is a mineral explorer and producer focused on the Yukon. As of Dec. 31, 2023, the company’s Eagle and Olive deposits house 2.3 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves, 4.4 million ounces in measured and indicated resources, and 700,000 ounces in inferred resources. At the current price per ounce, these ounces represent almost US$18 billion in the ground.
The company posted profitable results in each of the past four years, generating more than C$180 million in combined net income, as gold rose by more than 70 per cent over the period, currently trading at an all-time-high.
Victoria Gold stock (TSX:VGCX) last traded at C$0.59 per share. The stock has given back 92.06 per cent since news of the cyanide solution spill hit the markets June 24.
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(Top image: Victoria Gold)