Victoria Gold (TSX: VGCX) has finally admitted to detecting cyanide in a water sample following its heap leach facility incident that saw the collapse of part the stacked ore on site.
The admission follows the company on July 4 stating that no cyanide had been detected downstream, which hours later was refuted by government authorities.
The company has stated that only one single sample detected cyanide downstream from the mine amid what is said to be daily water sampling from multiple locations by the company. The sample in question was collected on July 2, and indicated 5.7 ppb CN. Samples collected the following two days reportedly had no detection of cyanide.
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While Victoria Gold says that no other samples collected as of July 10 have had elevated levels of cyanide, this comment is caveated by the fact that the firm only has results from samples collected up to July 4 – meaning no samples collected within the last eight days have seen the results returned.
In terms of scale of the incident, the company has now also stated that approximately 4 million tonnes of ore was involved in the collapse of the embankment, of which 2 million tonnes moved beyond the embankment area. The figure represents roughly 5% of the total ore stacked at the facility.
The slip meanwhile is said to have damaged certain piping and pumping infrastructure on site, along with the heap leach pad’s liner, two fixed conveyors, and certain electrical infrastructure in addition to the embankment itself. An investigation into what caused the incident is said to be underway, while mining operations remain suspended.
Victoria Gold last traded at $0.82 on the TSX.
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