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Letter: Where is the voice of responsible Yukon mining

Writer discusses speeches at geoscience forum and the role of the Yukon Chamber of Mines
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Dear Editor, Yukon News

Thanks to Bill Slater, consultant to the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, for his thoughtful and detailed speech to the Yukon GeoSciences Forum in Whitehorse (November 17, 2024). He focused on the environmental and social disaster created by the heap leach failure at the Victoria Gold Eagle Mine this past June. He clearly explained what we know so far about the behaviour of the mining company, how other players (such as the First Nation, YG, and the Receiver) have tried to reduce the scale of the disaster, and the large risks we still face from the spill of contaminated water. This is a terrible indictment of a particular mine gone wrong.

But at least as importantly, Slater called out the mining industry as a whole for its failure to heed the various warning signs of a mine being poorly operated, and its failure to induce Victoria Gold to act responsibly. Those warning signs included a previous cyanide spill, failure to comply with water storage requirements of its water license, and contesting the value of the security bond.

The industry as a whole is supposedly represented by the Yukon Chamber of Mines, which claims to “…help facilitate an environment of responsible development…” on behalf of the mining industry. However, throughout a series of irresponsible actions by mining companies in the territory, the Chamber has rarely expressed any concern in public and via public media (e.g., its webpage, newspapers, blogs). We have seen Yukon Zinc fail to pay a full security deposit then abandon the Wolverine mine to government cleanup, Capstone abandon the Minto mine to government cleanup without prior notice, and now the Victoria Gold failure. The Chamber’s near lack of public criticism, let alone concern, about those irresponsible actions by companies that were among its membership leads me to wonder whether the Chamber has any influence on its member companies, and may even condone and expect some of this behaviour from its members.

Where is the industry voice for responsible mining in this territory?

Donald Reid

Whitehorse