BQE Water Inc, a pacesetter within the remedy and administration of mine impacted waters, underneath its contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc, says it has discharged over 600,000 cu.m of handled water into the atmosphere from the Eagle gold mine within the Yukon of Canada.
BQE Water was contracted by PwC, in its capability as courtroom appointed receiver of Victoria Gold, as water remedy consultants and operations specialists to help with the emergency response on the Eagle gold mine located on the Conventional Territory of the First Nation Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) in central Yukon, which skilled a failure in its cyanide heap leach facility again in June 2024. This led to the discharge of roughly 4 million tons (3.6 Mt) of contaminated ore materials into the atmosphere. Following this, quite a few environmental orders had been issued by numerous regulatory our bodies in respect of the clean-up of the mine website and environmental remediation steps required.
On account of the failure and the pre-existing water remedy plant unable to deal with cyanide leach answer to supply non-toxic effluent, an emergency answer needed to be developed and carried out shortly. Working collaboratively with the technical advisors to the Yukon Authorities, the FNNND, PwC and previous Victoria Gold workers, the BQE Water crew developed and carried out a remedy course of combining current plant gear with off-the-shelf rental gear and newly constructed ponds. Engineering design, lab testing, procurement, operations and toxicological information evaluation needed to be carried out concurrently to make sure secure and well timed discharge of handled water into the atmosphere.
BQE Water has handled a number of water sources over the course of the mission together with cyanide heap leach answer contained on website following the heap failure, contact water reporting to leach answer storage ponds through the spring snow soften and contaminated groundwater pumped from interception wells.
The effluent water high quality has been repeatedly monitored utilizing key efficiency indicators developed by BQE’s crew utilizing analytical instruments accessible on website. Effluent high quality is additional verified by third-party accredited laboratories performing every day testing for toxicity and complete chemical evaluation on 24-hour composite samples from the tip of pipe.
With the contract prolonged till October 31, 2025, BQE Water will now proceed to be answerable for water remedy operations on website. Because the drain-down of answer from the heap leach facility is predicted to be considerably full and the remaining stock of contaminated water saved at Eagle continues to lower, the operation of the emergency response system is anticipated to return to an finish by the tip of the September quarter. Additional, as a part of the scope of labor, BQE Water will put together a decommissioning plan to wind down the emergency response remedy and a winterisation plan for all water remedy infrastructure that may stay on website over the winter. Topic to PwC’s approval, BQE Water will then implement these plans previous to demobilising from website.
Jani Djokic, the CEO of the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Growth Company (NNDDC), commented: “The heap leach failure at Eagle has had important influence on the FNNND lands and waters, together with the fish, animals and individuals who depend on these waters. BQE’s experience and responsiveness has been very helpful in avoiding even higher impacts – efforts which have included the participation of FNNND companies and residents immediately within the operations of the emergency remedy system, in addition to a Cooperation Settlement with NNDDC.”
David Kratochvil, the President and CEO of BQE Water, added: “Implementing the emergency response remedy system shortly with off-the-shelf items of apparatus put in within the excessive chilly climate and arriving at a steady and constant manufacturing of non-toxic effluent was very difficult. I’m tremendously pleased with our crew together with engineers, operators, aquatic toxicologists and assist employees: all working shortly, underneath a number of strain and retaining all stakeholders and regulatory authorities updated on all developments. The mission success is a real showcase of BQE Water’s skills.”
