After months of unsuccessfully urging the Yukon Government to initiate a public inquiry into the June 24, 2024 Eagle Gold Mine heap leach failure, the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) is escalating its efforts and seeking oversight from Canada. On December 9, 2024, FNNND sent a submission to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada calling for a performance audit into both the Yukon Government and the Government of Canada, to assess the role of both governments in overseeing the Eagle Gold Mine.

Read the full submission here

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Yukon’s lax approach to compliance and enforcement created the environment for the heap leach failure. FNNND is seeking an audit to examine the way the Yukon Government assessed, regulated, and oversaw Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold Mine, and the way that the Government of Canada and the Yukon Government have implemented—or failed to implement—the process and promises of federal devolution in the Yukon with respect to non-renewable resource management.

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Since the catastrophic events of June 24, the threat to FNNND’s Traditional Territory has not abated. On that day, four million tons of cyanide-laden ore slid down a mountainside heap embankment into the Dublin Gulch below and almost 100 fish deaths have been reported to date. Cyanide continues to seep into the groundwater, which is now reaching the nearby Haggart Creek, essential habitat for many fish species including the critically sensitive Chinook salmon. 

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FNNND is grieving and angry. We are angry at Yukon Government's legacy of toxic neglect and its failure to ensure safe and responsible mining. We are also disappointed by Yukon’s refusal to launch a public inquiry into the Eagle Gold Mine disaster. The Eagle Gold Mine crisis is not just about the technical failures; it's also about Yukon’s failure to responsibly regulate and oversee mining activity.

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The Yukon Government did establish an Independent Review Board on August 30, 2024, but this review board will only focus on the technical causes of the June 24 failure. It will not delve into the Yukon Government's own regulatory role in the catastrophe. A public inquiry, however, would review all factors that contributed to this disaster—not just the technical causes. Unfortunately, the Yukon Government has so far resisted such public scrutiny.

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Our submission to the Auditor General details multiple instances of Yukon Government's neglect in its duties as the regulator with regard to Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold Mine, creating unacceptable risk for FNNND, the broader public, and the environment. These instances firmly demonstrate the need for Canada to undertake a performance audit into the Yukon Government’s approach to mining regulation. For example, YG found Victoria Gold to be non-compliant with at least one of the Environment Act, Quartz Mining Act, or Waters Act in 25 of the 40 inspections it conducted between the commencement of commercial production in September 2019 and the Heap Leach Facility collapse in June 2024. YG’s response was to give Victoria Gold three warnings, four corrective actions, and a single Inspector’s Direction. YG fined Victoria Gold $95,430 while Victoria Gold made $416.9 million in revenue in 2023 alone. 

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This crisis also demonstrates how the Government of Canada has also failed to meet its responsibilities. The Yukon Government and the Government of Canada signed the Devolution Transfer Agreement (DTA) in 2001, transferring authority over territorial land and resource management from Canada to the Yukon Government. As part of devolution, Yukon Government agreed to mirror existing federal legislation as an interim step until it worked collaboratively with First Nations to develop its own, made-in-the-Yukon laws. Yet more than two decades after devolution, Yukon Government has failed to develop modern mineral legislation. Simply put, the promise of devolution has been betrayed to the great detriment of First Nations. Yukon Government’s decades of inaction have sacrificed reconciliation and treaty rights on the altar of convenience and expedience. Yukon’s approach perpetuates a nineteenth century vision of mining that disregards First Nations and their lands in favour of the short-term pursuit of profits by the mining industry.

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The Eagle Gold Mine crisis is far from over. Every day presents new challenges and new obstacles that could cause even more cyanide and heavy metals to pollute our lands and waters. As our team works tirelessly to mitigate and prevent even more harm and pollution, the Yukon Government has demonstrated their complete lack of interest in ensuring that a disaster of this magnitude never happens again in the Yukon.

We ask you, the members of the public, to send a message to the Yukon Government that we will not allow unsafe, unsustainable, and irresponsible mining practices to continue in the Yukon. Join our call for a public audit into Yukon’s management of mining and to demand modern mining legislation in the Yukon.

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Yukon’s Mismanagement of the Eagle Gold Mine

YG has failed the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun and Yukoners through their neglect to uphold safe and responsible mining in our territory. These are just some of the ways Yukon turned a blind eye to Victoria Gold's mismanagement of the Eagle Gold Mine:

Cyanide Treatment 

• Yukon allowed Victoria Gold to operate the Heap Leach Facility without any proven cyanide treatment capacity, despite multiple water licence conditions requiring it to do so. 
• Without the water treatment capacity, the landslide turned the mine into a massive makeshift holding tank, brimming with contaminated water. The longer it sits, the more cyanide seeps into the groundwater of FNNND’s Traditional Territory. Cyanide treatment facilities are only just now being commissioned, six months after the disaster.
• At no point did Yukon take enforcement action regarding the cyanide treatment capacity at Eagle Gold Mine. It only accepted a grossly insufficient alternative suggested by Victoria Gold, the efficacy of which was never fully demonstrated.

Water Storage Capacity

• Throughout most of Victoria Gold's operations, Yukon allowed Victoria Gold to operate while its Heap Leach Facility water balance was out of control, meaning adequate fluid storage was not maintained to absorb cyanide solution from the heap in the event something went wrong, like a pump failure or major rain event.
• This occurred multiple times from spring 2021-fall 2023. At worst, storage reached “red alert” levels, coming within a few centimeters of capacity, where a pumping failure could have caused a significant contamination event within hours.
• While Yukon eventually gave Victoria Gold a modest fine for some of these violations, it failed to take appropriate steps in the moment to address the issue, such as issuing directions, corrective actions, or engaging its own experts—all of which demonstrates YG’s failure to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
• Also, for eight months preceding the disaster, Yukon allowed Victoria Gold to operate without a properly functioning water conveyance channel crucial to the management of fluid in the Heap Leach Facility.

Over-Stacking Ore

• On January 6, 2024, 114,000 tons of material slid off the southeast part of the Heap Leach Facility. In the wake of this precursor slide, Yukon allowed normal ore stacking and mine operations to continue, without first identifying any cause to prevent recurrence. 
• As far as FNNND can tell, Yukon never engaged experts of its own to assess the cause of this landslide and ensure it was not repeated. No enforcement action was taken. Yukon ultimately cleared the immediately impacted slide area for ore stacking in late May 2024.
• Victoria Gold’s engineers eventually released a report on the root causes, identifying significant exceedances of ore pile capacity and improper stacking. The report is dated July 5, 2024 - 11 days after the catastrophic collapse of the Heap Leach Facility. Too little, too late.

Other Issues

• During initial permitting for the Eagle Gold Mine, Yukon failed to provide comprehensive technical input to support development of appropriate and robust water licence conditions.
• In the wake of the disaster, multiple Eagle Gold employees spoke out regarding their concerns about Victoria Gold’s lax safety culture, including one worker struggling with addiction who described the site as “Disneyland for an addict like me.”

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