An aerial photo of the landslide at the heap leach facility at the Eagle Gold Mine. Photo Courtesy of the Yukon Government.
Whitehorse, YT – There’s disagreement over who’s going to end up footing the bill for the cleanup of the Eagle Gold Mine. The Yukon Liberals say that Victoria Gold will pay the cost but the Yukon Party argues Yukoners will be the ones left with the cheque.
The Yukon Liberals state, in a press release, that they pushed for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to be appointed receivership over Victoria Gold to ensure that Yukoners would not bear the brunt of the cleanup costs.
Previous government estimates indicate that the total bill could reach $150 million.
The Yukon Government previously fronted $15 million to PwC for ‘urgent work’ to be done at the site in August but officials continue to stress that the cost will be paid for through Victoria Gold’s assets. They add that opposition leader Currie Dixon, “continues to publicly demonstrate his confusion about the Victoria Gold receivership.”
The Yukon Party highlights that when PwC was appointed receiver on August 16th, they seized all of Victoria Gold’s assets, money and the Eagle Gold Mine site. Following the receivership Victoria Gold’s board resigned, CEO John McConnell was fired and the company was delisted from the TSX.
“PwC will not be paying for the clean-up, and Victoria Gold will not be paying for the clean-up,” the Yukon Party Caucus said in an email statement. “Yukon taxpayers are stuck with this as a result of the Liberals’ decision.”
A July 30 press release from Victoria Gold stated that “there can be no assurance that the Company… will have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”
Yesterday, the 2024-25 Supplementary Budget was tabled which includes $50 million to be budgeted for Eagle Gold Mine cleanup.
