(NewsWorthy.news) – High levels of cyanide have been discovered in a waterway close to Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Mine in Yukon, Canada, following an equipment malfunction and landside at the mine. John Streicker, the Yukon Mining Minister, told local reporters that increased concentrations of cyanide were found in a creek near the mine. The announcement was made only hours after Victoria Gold claimed that it had not detected high levels of cyanide downstream of the mine following the incident on June 24.
Victoria Gold announced that lenders had sent the company notices of default regarding a 2020 credit agreement amounting to US$200 million. Streicker stated in a separate briefing that alarming levels of cyanide of approximately 40 parts per billion were found at the creek. The acceptable level of cyanide is five parts per billion, and the elevated levels could harm the creek’s fish, according to Streicker.
Streicker explained that the cyanide’s effect on fish depends on which other chemicals the water contains. He added that tests were ongoing to assess both the water’s quality and its toxicity to fish, and that experts in aquatic science were being consulted by the government to determine the risk to the environment.
The heap leach failure at the site roughly 500 kilometers north of Whitehorse resulted in the gold producer suspending its operations at the mine, which is the largest in the Yukon territory. In the practice of heap leaching, Mined ore is stacked into piles before it is sprinkled with a cyanide-water solution.
In February 2024 an accident at a gold mine in Turkey’s Erzincan province raised concerns about cyanide contaminating the local ecosystem, which includes the Euphrates river. The incident followed a 2022 accident at the same mine resulting in a spill of approximately 20 tons of a cyanide solution.
The gold mining industry claims that, because cyanide soon breaks down in surface water, it is relatively safe. Compounds that cyanide produces when it breaks down, however, can be harmful. The pollution caused by cyanide spills can linger for a long time and contaminate aquifers that act as sources for drinking water. Groundwater contaminated by a cyanide spill can also spread into linked neighboring streams.
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