As the anniversary of the landslide which took the Eagle Gold Mine in the Yukon out of action approaches, gold will be recovered from the site for the first time in a year.
The court-appointed receiver that has been in charge of the mine formerly operated by Victoria Gold Corp. and the clean up from the June 2024 landslide has announced plans to recover gold from the cyanide-laden water on the mine site. The receiver, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, has been in control of the site since August 2024 with a mandate to restore the mine to the state it was in prior to the slide.
An update published by the receiver on June 11 explains plans to restart the adsorption-desorption-regeneration carbon plant (ADR). According to the receiver, putting this back to use in a limited capacity will address water quality concerns, free up water storage capacity and extract precious metals which can be sold to fund the remediation work at the mine.
The restart of the facility was set for June 12.
The receiver successfully applied to have its borrowing limit raised from $105 million to $220 million in March.
According to Yukon Department of Energy, Mines and Resources spokesperson John Thompson, the territorial government has agreed to advance the receiver the $220 million. So far, the government has provided $105 million in loans with about half of that sourced from the security deposit put up by Victoria Gold when the mine was in operation. Thompson told the News that $111 million had been spent on remediation at the mine as of March 14.
The territorial government budgeted $118 million for its response to the heap leach failure for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The mine’s operating licence has been suspended since last summer but the receiver states that restarting the ADR does not constitute a resumption of mining.
“The ADR will operate in a closed system, therefore operating this machine will not risk nor cause further contamination of water at the Eagle Gold Mine,” the June 11 update reads.
“The ADR restart will not involve the addition of cyanide to facilitate the extraction of precious metals. These metals will be extracted using electrowinning cells, electrical currents which are passed through the water solution, causing metals to deposit onto electrodes. These deposits will be collected, and dried to be sent for refining and processing by a third-party off site.”
The kiln and refinery on the site will not be used.
Other work described in recent material published by the receiver includes directional drilling with the goal of removing water from the heap leach facility that was damaged by the landslide. The receiver noted in a June 6 update that remotely operated dozers are required to safely stabilize some parts of the heap and that remote equipment was being transported to the site. Efforts to bolster contaminated water storage and deal with the spring high water are also described.
Groundwater pumping and diversion began in mid May and was expanded to additional wells by the end of the month.
— With files from Dana Hatherly
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com
