Victoria Gold must rapidly secure landslide site: expert

Victoria Gold (TSXV: GCX) must quickly stabilize its Eagle gold mine site to prevent another landslide and a spill to neighbouring property, a landslide expert says.

The company suspended operations and said it’s investigating an accident on Monday at the Yukon site’s heap leach pad. It’s about 375 km north of Whitehorse. No one was injured.

Photos show a 1.3-km failure of material down a slope after “a very deep-seated rotational failure in the heap leach,” Dave Petley, author of The Landslide Blog, a leader in landslide analysis, said by email.

“This needs rapid action to secure the site, in particular ahead of any rainfall,” Petley told The Northern Miner.

“There are a few worries now. The first is the potential for release of sediment or fluids beyond the mine boundary – a pollution incident. The second is the possibility of further mobilisation of the landslide mass, in particular as flow failure. The third is the possibility of a further failure of the heap leach – the rear scarp of the main rotational landslide is very steep, so instability is possible.”