Freshet preparations underway at Eagle Gold Mine

Following a briefing by the court-appointed Receiver to members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, the Government of Yukon is providing information to the public about ongoing work at the Eagle Gold Mine site in preparation for freshet, ongoing water storage and treatment and water quality monitoring. Freshet occurs every spring, as snow melts and water volumes increase. All mine sites have contingency plans to deal with this occurrence and it is a regular part of care and maintenance planning.

Preparation for freshet
Current work at the site is focused on managing the risks associated with the large amount of additional water at site through spring snowmelt. The main risk during this period is that snow and ice melts faster than water can be treated or stored, and as a result, there could be uncontrolled release of water containing cyanide.

The Receiver, the Yukon government and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun agree that every effort needs to be taken to prevent the uncontrolled release of untreated water containing cyanide. The Receiver and contractors on site are working to ensure the necessary water treatment and water management infrastructure is in place for when water volumes increase.

Water storage, treatment and discharge
The Receiver and contractors on site are currently building sumps, ditches and pipelines to route melt water away from water containing cyanide and areas impacted by cyanide. Two additional storage ponds are also being built to help hold water containing cyanide until it can be treated. These ponds will provide over 200,000 cubic metres of additional storage space – roughly 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools. One storage pond will be completed soon and the other is expected to be finished in May.

Challenges remain with treating water so that it meets the site’s licence conditions. While the treatment process is effective at removing cyanide, the water treatment process introduces high amounts of copper, cobalt and nitrite. Work is underway to make upgrades to existing water treatment systems to improve the quality of the effluent discharged to the environment.

For this spring, snowpack is average at the mine site. The weather in the coming weeks will play a significant role in the speed of melt.

Water quality monitoring
Daily water samples are being collected and a comprehensive environmental monitoring program is underway. Water quality results are available at Yukon.ca.

The Government of Yukon will continue to provide information to the public on the Receiver’s activities on site.