Mercury found in water near Yukon mine disaster, Yukon government says

The Yukon government says mercury levels that “exceeded the water quality objective” were found in a creek near the site where a mine’s ore containment facility failed, causing a torrent of cyanide-contaminated rock to escape in June.

A statement from the government says high levels of cyanide and dissolved metals continue to be detected in the groundwater at testing sites closest to the Eagle Gold mine slide where millions of tonnes of ore was released.

The statement Friday says officials aren’t seeing unsafe levels of cyanide in the downstream environment, but on Sept. 24 and 26, “the mercury level exceeded the water quality objective at one monitoring station” south of the site.

The statement says the government is gathering more information to understand the data and its impacts on the environment 480 kilometres north of Whitehorse.

Questions about the mercury were directed to the Department of Environment, which said it would provide answers to those questions early next week.

The mine owner, Victoria Gold, is in receivership, and the Yukon government announced in August that an independent review of what went wrong is underway.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.