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The day after the landslide, pumps were installed to collect some of the contaminated water. (Archive photo)
Photo: Government of Yukon
Posted at 10:41 a.m. EST
The Yukon government says mercury has been detected in water samples three kilometers downstream from Eagle Mine. In June, a gold mining disaster released several million tons of contaminated rock.
A statement from the territorial government says high levels of mercury were found at four sampling sites above “water quality objectives”, and other tests showed levels of cobalt and cyanide at above quality standards in Haggart Creek, near the Eagle Gold mine site.
Mining used chemicals to extract the gold, and the government update says further sampling is underway to test for methylmercury, the type that accumulates in animals, after it was found in samples taken in mid-October.
The Yukon government says contaminants in Haggart Creek, about 480 km north of Whitehorse, are above water quality guidelines but do not “pose an increased risk” to the health of people who live downstream.
The statement said people should still not eat fish caught near the mine site, where work continues on a water treatment plant and after the completion of a safety berm that the mine owner does not not built despite orders to do so.
He says the winter will be an opportunity to study the stability of the mine’s failing heap leach facility to determine how to stabilize it.
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