In June, Yukon’s Eagle gold mine saw what the territory’s mines minister is calling a “catastrophic failure”: the release of hundreds of millions of litres of toxic cyanide solution into the environment. For many local residents, it’s a wake-up call about the risks and costs of large-scale mining in the territory. 

CBC News: Steve Buyck walks a forest path framed by highbush cranberries, rosehips and Siberian Aster. Slung over his shoulder, a rifle. The bullet in the chamber is large enough to down a moose.

These days, however, hunting the animal doesn’t come so easily for him. Not far away from Buyck’s home, along the banks of the Stewart River in central Yukon, is the Eagle mine, the site of a “catastrophic” heap leach pad failure and cyanide spill in late June. 

“Whatever I am eating in that area I am definitely going to have that in the back of my mind,” the citizen of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun said.

“My heart is crying. Crying for the land.”

By now, June 24 is likely seared into many people’s memories. That’s when part of Victoria Gold’s open-pit Eagle mine failed and a rockslide involving roughly four million tonnes of material tore off a large piece of the mine’s heap leach facility, where gold is chemically extracted from rock. When containment walls broke, some 300 million litres of cyanide solution spilled. 

Since then, elevated levels of cyanide have been detected in various locations along nearby Haggart Creek, which is about one kilometre away from the heap leach pad. A spokesperson with Environment Yukon said in an email to CBC News 78 fish have so far been found dead in or near the waterway.

Much attention is being paid to what’s now in the groundwater. Engineers and an environmental consultant with Na-Cho Nyäk Dun have warned a plume of contamination is heading toward Haggart Creek because Victoria Gold, among other things, didn’t have enough wastewater storage and reagent — hydrogen peroxide — on site to break down the cyanide. Some groundwater samples collected by Victoria Gold at the site have shown cyanide concentrations 10,000 times greater than long-term water quality guidelines for aquatic life.

With Victoria Gold now under receivership, officials with the Yukon government have said work has begun, in earnest, to protect the land and water. On Friday, government officials said cyanide levels in Haggart Creek continue to decrease, with the extension of a diversion pipe.

Tyler Williams, a water resource scientist with the territorial government, said that means clean water now bypasses contamination on-site, emptying into Haggart Creek.

“That contaminated groundwater is now surfacing and pooling in a dry creek bed in Dublin Gulch,” he said, referring to the valley which slopes down from the heap leach pad to the creek. 

Williams said an additional dam has been built near the waterway.

“That water is now captured,” he said. “It’s being pumped into trucks and being sent back to water management ponds.

“While we are seeing decreased levels of cyanide in our most recent [sampling] results, this is still a dynamic situation that always has potential to change.”

The territorial government is waiting on more test results to determine where the source of the contaminated groundwater is exactly. Linked to that is building more monitoring wells near the toe of the slide. But crews won’t be able to access that area, which could still be unstable, until a safety berm is installed.

No one yet knows, for sure, the cause of the failure, and it’ll continue to be elusive, officials say, until an investigation is complete.

Still, people like Buyck in Mayo and surrounding communities are calling the spill an unmitigated disaster. They’re not convinced there’s an available antidote. The damage, they say, is already done.

‘I don’t believe that they’ll be able to clean it up’

Haggart Creek eventually drains into a network of rivers: the McQuesten, into the Stewart and then the Yukon River, the territory’s largest, eventually flowing into Alaska and emptying into the sea.

The home of Sylvia Frisch is perched on a cliff overlooking the valley of the McQuesten River, about 130 kilometres downstream from the Eagle mine. This is where her family lives, year-round, harvesting and selling syrup from a stand of birch trees up the back of a mountain.

Their home, Frisch said, is the first downstream from the mine site.

“My business is entirely dependent on a functioning ecosystem, and the river is a big part of that,” she said. “If the water is poisoned, the land is poisoned, the people are poisoned. 

“My confidence in hard rock mining is over. I don’t believe that they’ll be able to clean it up.”

Ron Barrett is Frisch’s neighbour. He’s been placer mining for upward of 50 years. His main tools of the trade: a shovel and a gold pan.

Barrett wants more information about downstream impacts from the Eagle mine failure.

“What’s more important, the people or making money?” he said. “So far, money.”

Elder Jimmy Johnny, a resident of Mayo, Yukon, and a former wilderness guide, wears a western shirt with snap buttons, sipping from a can of 7-Up. Soft spoken and observant, it seems every word is chosen carefully. 

Johnny’s formative years were spent at a cabin north of Mayo, the community nearest to the Eagle mine. The cabin is still standing, and he uses it as a base when hunting moose, picking berries and netting fish. 

“To destroy a land where my grandfather and I used to hunt and, it’s very, very disturbing to me,” Johnny said. 

“That’s our store out there. The land can provide.”

‘We will continue to hustle’

John Streicker, Yukon’s minister of mines, said he understands residents are afraid and upset. He assuages people’s fears by saying animals like moose remain safe to eat. Fish too, except in Haggart Creek, the proverbial ground zero of environmental impacts.

“This is a catastrophic failure,” Streicker said. “We will continue to hustle to protect the environment as much as possible from the contaminated water.”

Earlier this month, an Ontario court appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to do what Victoria Gold botched. That includes installing a barrier to stabilize the site, building more wastewater storage and installing a series of wells to intercept contaminated groundwater — work many people, including engineers hired by Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, have said has taken too long to execute. 

In July, those same engineers and other experts warned that a cyanide plume in the groundwater has been inching closer down the valley of Dublin Gulch to Haggart Creek.

Streicker confirmed this remains a concern.

Asked how the government plans to restore residents’ shattered trust in the mining industry, Streicker said that looks like doubling down on protecting the land and water “before it becomes an environmental catastrophe in Haggart Creek.”

“Before we ever get back to having a mine here — and maybe more broadly across the Yukon — we certainly want to know what caused this so that we can be sure that we’ve got the steps in place that it would not be a risk in the future.”

In an email to CBC News, a Yukon cabinet spokesperson said the government is moving forward with an investigation under the independent review board, an appointed group tasked with providing expert opinion and advice on mine waste management facilities. Jordan Owens said members have been identified and talks with Na-Cho Nyäk Dun continue.

Chief calls for a ban on cyanide heap leaching

Nicole Tom, chief of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation, stands near racks used to dry fish harvested from Tatchun Creek and the Yukon River. These days, the only salmon on those racks is a species not native to the region — sockeye, which is flown in by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation. For years, Little Salmon Carmacks citizens have voluntarily stopped fishing Yukon River chinook salmon, as the population has for years plummeted in the drainage system.

While Tom’s Northern Tutchone community is upriver from tributaries that could contain contaminants from the mine, she’s worried migrating salmon — some on a steady course south — could come into contact with the toxins. 

In July, Na-Cho Nyäk Dun called for a moratorium on staking and mineral development until the spill is contained and mitigated. 

Tom is also now calling for a territory-wide ban on heap leaching, which she argues is “causing ecocide.”

“Water is the number one medicine. It needs to be clean. It’s what takes care of everything,” Tom said.

“That’s going to make a difference for these future children.”

Premier Ranj Pillai has committed to a pause on licensing heap leach facilities until “a thorough review is complete.”

Angelina Byers, a youth from the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation, said she wants more action. To her, that looks like people standing up for the land and water and everything — and everyone — that depends on it. 

“It’s upsetting. I’m worried about the fish and animals,” she said, “and the future and what’s going to be.”

About the Author

Julien Greene

Julien Greene is a reporter for CBC Yukon. He can be reached at julien.greene@cbc.ca