Victoria Gold CEO says company won’t fold, contamination minor

Victoria Gold (TSXV: VGCX) says the danger of major contamination from its Eagle mine in the Yukon has passed and the company is financially solvent for now.

CEO and president John McConnell has spoken publicly for the first time in remarks to the CBC since a June 24 landslide of millions of tonnes of cyanide-laced ore stopped production and threatened local waterways. He apologized to employees, Yukoners and the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation.

However, McConnell says the company doesn’t agree with some efforts by the territorial government to step in with contractors to build a berm because it may create environmental and safety issues. But the company is helping the effort, he said. He made the comments in an interview the CBC aired on Tuesday.

It followed on the same day the company’s first printed statement since July 12, which said it continues to find “trace amounts” of cyanide, used in gold mining to separate the metal form ore, in a local creek. It’s proposing to send some of the contaminated water on site back to the heap leach pad so that containment ponds aren’t overwhelmed.

“The company and its third-party experts have determined that a modest irrigation strategy to the areas of the heap leach facility (HLF) that were not impacted by the HLF incident is a safe water management plan,” Victoria said. It “will allow time for the company to augment water treatment and discharge capacity at site and will avoid direct discharge of untreated water to the environment,” the miner said.  

Moratorium