Victoria Gold is cleaning up after another spill at its Yukon mine.

A report from the company indicates a gasket failed on a “west process solution line”, creating a pinhole that caused a high- pressure spray of material on July 30.

While the spill occurred in a lined area, the report indicates some of the material made it to a nearby roadway.

The solution flowed down the roadway into a ditch that directed it back into containment, according to the report.

Victoria Gold hired a company, Underhill Geomatic, to remediate the damage and direct the cleanup.

“Following the process solution release on July 30, the flow path was delineated by Underhill Geomatics. Solution was not observed to travel towards or enter the Event Pond or potential freshwater receiving environments down-gradient of the release.

“Water quality samples were taken on the afternoon of July 30 to evaluate Dublin Gulch and Haggart Creek to ensure that our observations were accurate.

“Preliminary water quality results show no detection of total cyanide or weak acid dissociable (WAD) cyanide.”

Underhill reported, “The impacted material on the western edge of the HLP berm and roadway ditch below was excavated from July 30 to Aug. 1. Upon completion of the excavation, 37 soil samples were taken on Aug. 2 following CSR requirements and returned results well below industrial CSR standards for both WAD and strong acid dissociable cyanide.

“Guards have now been installed on the distribution line caps and flanges to mitigate a reoccurrence of this event.”

Lewis Rifkind, a mining analyst with the Yukon Conservation Society, said he has some concerns with what the company is reporting.

“Based on the spill report, about 17,000 litres of what’s called process solution sprayed out from a small hole in a pipe cap seal,” Rifkind said.

“The process solution is essentially a sodium/cyanide liquid.

“The pipe where the leak occurred sits atop the liner of the Heap Leach Pad. This liner is essentially a huge piece of plastic that ensures process solution doesn’t contaminate anything.

“Unfortunately, in this case, the small leak in the pipe happened through a pinhole, which caused the process solution to spray like a very large shower faucet.

“It then sprayed beyond the liner area thus contaminating ground. According to the spill report 176 cubic metres of soil was contaminated. This has been gathered up by the company for treatment to neutralize the cyanide,” Rifkind said.

“The company is also testing groundwater and streams that are downstream of the spill site to see if any cyanide has escaped into the wider environmental area. Cyanide is poisonous, but it can break down rapidly in surface water. However, the compounds that cyanide breaks down into can also be harmful, so this spill is not a good thing.”

Rifkind added that “from the Yukon Conservation Society’s perspective, the spill does raise some questions for the mine operator.

“Should more frequent inspection and maintenance be done of the mine’s infrastructure, particularly things like the cyanide process solution pipe distribution system?

“Also, perhaps the liner should be expanded to account for events like this one, where the fluid sprayed beyond the area covered by the liner.” 

Victoria Gold did not respond to a request for comment.