Victoria Achieves Commercial Production at Eagle Gold Mine in Yukon


Canada’s newest gold mine produces doré from a three-stage crushing plant, in-valley heap leach and carbon-inleach
adsorption-desorption gold recovery plant.
Victoria Gold reported it reached commercial production at the Eagle gold mine on July 1. All facilities required at this stage of the mine life are complete. Mining, crushing, processing and maintenance operations are performing at a high level. “Site activities continue to progress well and all facilities and operations are now at or approaching design capacity,” Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell said. “Achieving commercial production is a meaningful and memorable accomplishment that the entire team is proud to be part of. Special thanks goes to so many contributors, including the local communities and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun who have helped us make Eagle a reality.”

Mining commenced in Q2 2019 in the Eagle pit to provide waste rock for construction and allow for access roads to be built. Leachate processing also commenced in Q3 2019. The Eagle mine operates as an open-pit, truck-shovel operation, using a fleet of 22-m3 front shovels, 12-m3 front-end loaders and 136-metric ton (mt) haul trucks. Prior to COVID-19, the mine was expecting to produce a total of 149 million mt of heap leach feed.

The company continues to follow strict COVID-19 protocols at the Eagle mine site as well as across the company’s work locations. Yukon is currently in Phase 2 of lifting restrictions. Personnel from Yukon and British Columbia are no longer required to self-isolate prior to coming to site, however, all workers from outside the Canadian territories and British Columbia will self-isolate in Whitehorse for 14 days prior to traveling to site. The Eagle mine site continues to operate on a four week in/four week out schedule rather than the normal pre-COVID-19 two week in/two week out schedule.

As featured in Womp 2020 Vol 09 - www.womp-int.com