The following are two articles taken from the Whitehorse Star Monday and Tuesday editions. I am glad to hear that Mr. Dickson has found new money to restart the Mt. Nansen operations. Clearly, these new investors are pleased with the way Mr. Dickson and the rest of his management and BofD have run the corporation and are willing to give him, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15 to 20 million to get things going again.
BYG Natural Resources Inc. is in territorial court today facing charges under the Yukon Water Act.
“We were concerned with the cyanide and arsenic levels (seeping from the tailings pond),”
David Sherstone, regional manager of Water Resources within DIAND, told territorial court Judge Heino Lilles this morning.
BYG president Graham Dickson appeared in court, expecting to represent his company. Dickson told Lilles a spokesperson at D. Manning and Associates, one of two receivers for the troubled mining company, had asked him to appear on their behalf and ask for an adjournment until the company could be represented in a proper manner.
Federal crown prosecutor Brett Webber, however, produced a letter dated last April, in which D. Manning clearly states the company cannot be represented by anyone from its board.
Lilles asked Webber to call D. Manning and clarify the situation. Webber did so, and a misunderstanding between D. Manning and Dickson had apparently occurred. Dickson was not allowed to represent BYG.
Why the receiver did not get a lawyer to ask for adjournment of the trial is unclear. So Lilles asked Dickson to step down, but decided to continue the trial nonetheless, as the Crown had all of their six witnesses ready. BYG, having previously entered a not guilty
plea, does not have any legal representation.
Sherstone, who has been in his position since 1993, was Webber's first witness. He testified BYG has been involved with a number of mining projects in the territory. Among it's projects is a gold mine at Mount Nansen, which closed down in February this year.
In 1996, BYG was issued a licence for it's tailing system; a tailings pond and a dam, at the Mt. Nansen gold mine, which is at a 1,200 metre elevation.
The pond is used to store materials left over from the milling process, which involves the use of arsenic and cyanide.
“A number of nasty chemicals are stuck in your tailings pond,” said Sherstone, adding not
much water is expected to gather in the pond, or in front of the dam which is built to
gather seepage from the tailings pond.
Water in the tailings pond is often recycled, rather than to draw fresh water in from the
environment, said Sherstone.
He explained people don't want a lot of extra water in their tailings system, as that water
will then need to go somewhere, and with arsenic, cyanide, zinc, copper and other “nasty
stuff” in the water, it can cause environmental damage and is toxic to fish.
Sherstone said that not only did BYG not recycle it's water, it also had serious problems
controlling the water entering the system from the beginning.
While leekage through the same is not an uncommon problem, this dam leaks too much,
and the water seeping is very polluted, Sherstone said.
Seepage from the mine drains into the Victoria and Dome creeks, which then drain into
one of the major rivers in the Yukon.
“Realistically, the mine is on the (Dome) Creek,” he said, adding, the seeping water is
suspected to enter both the creeks and a large wetland area, downstream from the dam.
BYG was allowed to have a maximum of 25 mg of cyanide per litre in the water seeping
from the pond, which Sherstone said is higher than most mines in the Yukon are allowed.
But the mine usually had at least double that amount, or generally a cyanide concentration
of between 50 and 100 mg per litre, and has been known to be as high as 200 mg per
litre, he said.
Sherstone told the judge BYG should have blocked the passages where water was
seeping through, but that was not done.
Along with this problem, which BYG has not responded to, DIAND has had a number of
other issues with BYG, Sherstone told the court. In fact, said Sherstone, DIAND has sent
a total of 47 letters to BYG, which the company has either not responded to, or
responded late.
“They still refuse to believe the dam stability is an issue,” Sherstone told Lilles.
The case, which was originally planned for a period of two weeks, is expected to wrap up
today, the Crown told reporters.
A University of Waterloo professor says he's never seen cyanide levels a high as they are
at BYG's Mount Nansen gold mine, located west of Carmacks.
Dr. George Dixon, an expert in environmental toxicology, told territorial court Monday
that if the water from the pond is leaking into the environment, it's “a rolling wave of death
floating downstream.”
BYG Natural Resources Inc. has been charged under the Yukon Water Act, for high
cyanide and arsenic levels in the mine's tailings pond, contrary to the company's
water-use licence.
The troubled mining company was unrepresented in court yesterday, probably due to
funding, federal Crown attorney Brett Webber speculated.
BYG, which has nowhere near enough money in its Yukon water board clean-up fund to
cover the cost if the judge finds it guilty, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Crown brought a number of highly qualified specialists in as witnesses, and in an
all-day trial, the court learned how BYG is involved with a number of mining projects in
the Yukon, including Mount Nansen, which closed down in February.
“We were concerned with the cyanide and arsenic levels (seeping from the mine),” David
Sherstone, the federal regional manager of water resource, told Judge Heino Lilles.
Experts representing both the company and the Department of Indian Affairs and
Northern Development (DIAND), along with other experts, gave the water board their
opinions on the tailings pond and dam before it was built. The water board accepted
BYG's submissions, and in 1996, BYG was issued a licence for it's tailings system at the
mine site.
The dam was built on permafrost, and BYG's experts expected the permafrost would
creep up again and seal the dam. That has not happened. Rather, the permafrost around
the dam has thawed, thus creating a passage for leaking water from the pond into the
environment.
As a part of the mining process, crushed rock from milling and chemicals such as arsenic,
cyanide, zinc and copper used in the gold recovery process, is gathered in the tailings
pond, which is at the 1,200-metre elevation, the court learned.
“A number of nasty chemicals are stuck in your tailings pond,” said Sherstone, so the
water in the pond is polluted.
BYG had serious problems controlling the water entering and leaving the system from the
beginning. While it is not an uncommon problem for dams to leak, said Sherstone, this
dam leaks too much, and the water seeping is very polluted.
The seepage enters both the Victoria and the Dome creeks and a large wetland area,
downstream from the dam. The creeks run into larger rivers, which end in the Yukon
River.
BYG was allowed to have 25 mg of cyanide per each water litre in the pond, which
Sherstone said is higher than most mines in the Yukon are allowed.
But the mine usually had at least double that amount, or generally a cyanide concentration
of between 50 and 100 mg per litre. It has been known to be as high as 200 mg per litre,
said Sherstone.
“If cyanide is going to kill fish, the more cyanide you release, the more fish you kill,” said
the University of Waterloo expert, adding that .005 mg of cyanide per litre is the level that
is believed not to cause any damage to the environment. Also, said Dixon, the more
cyanide there is, the further down the river system the effects will be felt.
“When you see dead fish floating down the river, people start to worry,” said the
professor.
Dixon explained when cyanide in the pond is 25 mg per litre, or the maximum allowed
level, it kills fish in both the creeks and in the Nisling River. When it's 200 mg cyanide per
pond-water litre, it kills fish down both creeks, the Nisling, the Donjek, the White and the
Yukon rivers, all the way into Alaska, Dixon said.
Webber reminded the judge that even if he would not believe the reports from DIAND,
BYG's own tests show the water in the tailings pond was much too contaminated. Also,
this problem is present, and cleanup has to be done soon.
That cost will be between $4 million and $8 million, but the mine only has $445,000 in
their cleanup fund with the Yukon water board - or half of what they are supposed to
have there, Sherstone told reporters after the trial. The rest of the money will likely have to
come from taxpayers pockets, Webber said.
The judge was also concerned with this issue, and pointed out the company, which
appears to be a “shell company” at the moment, will not have nearly enough money to pay
for the cleanup costs.
Webber explained that before the trial began yesterday BYG's president Graham
Dickson indicated the troubled mining company has found money in Toronto, which will
enable it to continue it's operations in the Yukon.
Lilles told the court he would take two days to think this case over, and a decision will be
made on Wednesday morning. |
