Victoria Gold must rapidly secure landslide site: expert

Photos show a 1.3-km failure of material down a slope after “a very deep-seated rotational failure in the heap leach,” Dave Petley, author of The Landslide Blog, a leader in landslide analysis, said by email.

“This needs rapid action to secure the site, in particular ahead of any rainfall,” Petley told The Northern Miner.

“There are a few worries now. The first is the potential for release of sediment or fluids beyond the mine boundary – a pollution incident. The second is the possibility of further mobilisation of the landslide mass, in particular as flow failure. The third is the possibility of a further failure of the heap leach – the rear scarp of the main rotational landslide is very steep, so instability is possible.”

Petley, vice-chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, annotated this image below of the mine site, shot from a plane by The Northern Miner on Tuesday.

The toe of the landslide has fragmented to form the flow landslide that has run down through the site, Petley said. He used before and after satellite photos to estimate the slide at about 1,430 metres from crown to toe along its track and a maximum of about 370 metres wide.

“The scale is impressive,” he said.  

Eagle, the territory’s only active gold mine, produced 1.9 million tonnes in the first quarter for 29,580 oz. of gold; and 8.5 million tonnes in 2023 for 166,730 ounces, according to company figures. About 500 people work at Eagle, not including contractors and consultants.

The Eagle accident is the second major heap leach pad landslide globally this year. Denver-based SSR Mining (TSX: SSRM; NASDAQ: SSRM; ASX: SSR) lost nine employees in a Feb. 13 accident at the Çöpler gold mine in Turkey. Officials recovered one body in April after removing 4 million tonnes of material, the company said.

Infrastructure damage

“At this early stage, it can be confirmed that there has been some damage to infrastructure and a portion of the failure has left containment,” Victoria said on Monday. “There have been no injuries to personnel associated with the incident.”

The company hasn’t replied to additional requests for comment. A phone call to CEO John McConnell on Wednesday got an out-of-service message. The company canceled an appearance at the Yukon Mining Investment Conference in Dawson City on Monday.

Yukon’s Department of Energy, Mines and Resources said by email on Tuesday its officers will investigate the accident. 

Shares in Victoria Gold were down 5% on Wednesday morning in Toronto to C$1.31 apiece after plunging 83% a day earlier. The company’s market value is C$88.7 million. The stock has traded as high as C$9.45 over the past 52 weeks. 

Watch this video shot from a plane by The Northern Miner.

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) said in a statement posted on Facebook Monday that it’s deeply concerned about the landslide’s “potentially significant and far-reaching environmental impacts” to area water, fish and wildlife. Eagle is located on FNNND traditional territory.

“This is a deeply serious incident and we are monitoring it closely, with our staff on the ground and with our partners in public government,” FNNND Chief Dawna Hope said. “Our first priority is to minimize the impacts on our lands, waters and wildlife as well as on FNNND and any other affected First Nations. We will then seek to understand how and why this occurred.”

The primary leaching pad can accommodate as much as 90 million tonnes of ore, according to a Victoria Gold technical report. The pad is located about 1.2 km north of the main Eagle zone orebody. 

Below are before and after satellite images from San Francisco-based Planet Labs.