Wolverine mine flooding, Yukon Zinc not complying with agreements

The Yukon government is speaking out about problems with Yukon Zinc and the now-closed Wolverine Mine, including non-compliance with its temporary closure plan, a move it says has caused the mine site to slowly flood for months.

The mine did not re-open after a holiday shutdown in December. On Feb. 5, a stop work order for Wolverine Mine was issued by the Worker's Compensation Board because of safety concerns with a ramp leading into a pump station 1,150 metres underground at the mine. 

However, according to Rob Thomson, the head of compliance monitoring and inspection for the territorial government, Yukon Zinc didn't want to pay to repair the ramp and keep the pumps going, which has led to the site slowly flooding for almost two months. 

"A primary element of the temporary closure provisions of the decommissioning and closure plan is to continue de-watering the mine," said Thomson. "That's specifically one of the things the mine is not doing. The company feels it can't afford to de-water the mine."

The comments came during a government technical briefing on the mine March 24 in Whitehorse. Government officials also formally charged Yukon Zinc with failure to make security payments, which are used to ensure taxpayers aren't left paying for clean-up costs, should the mine close. The maximum fine for the charge is $100,000, but Yukon Zinc owes nearly $3 million to the Yukon government in security payments.

"Right now, all we are investigating, and I won't speak much more about it, is the failure to follow inspector's directions and the failure to abide by the terms and conditions of the respective licenses," said Thomson, "specifically the temporary closure provisions of the decommissioning and closure plan."

"I think we're satisfied that it isn't a crisis at this moment in time." 

The failure of Yukon Zinc to de-water the mine site means that the total security cost for Wolverine Mine is likely to go up, according to Bob Holmes, director of mineral resources, who added the government is looking into the environmental impacts of the flooding.

"That's one of the issues that we're looking at in our consulting review, is what are the implications of that, primarily on the ability to protect the environment and also to implement the final closure plan," he said.