Yukon's Ketza mine abandoned by Veris Gold

The Yukon government is keeping an eye on environmental concerns at the Ketzagoldmine, now that the owner has officially abandoned the site.

As of April 10,Veris Gold stopped paying for care and maintenance of the mine site, locatedabout 80 kilometres south ofRoss River.Yukon is now using funds from the mine's security payment to pay for the work.

Robert Thomson,Yukon's director of compliance, monitoring and inspection,said the government was aware for about a year that the mine was in financial trouble. He saidthere is no way the government can stop Veris Gold from walking away.

"They had no more money for performing any of their duties," saidThomson.

"They were no longer in a position to pay any of the employees at the site and that's just a fact that we were confronted with. One we were anticipating but one that we couldn't prevent."

Inspectors on site

Thomsonsaid theGovernment of Yukon has taken over care and maintenance of the site.

He said that over the past year, Yukon has had to stepin and use some of the $3.1 million insecurity money to deal with maintenance concerns on the site. Water leaving the siteuntreatedhad to be collectedand pumped back to the arsenic treatment plant, and work had to be done toensure surface water wasn't going to flow into the tailing pond during spring runoff.

He said inspectors are now"ensuring that water does not leave the site untreated and ensuring that the tailing storage pond maintains its integrity and stability."

Just under $2 million of the security remains.

There is no estimate yeton the cost of remediation.The mine was permitted before devolution, so the cost of the cleanup willfall to the federal government.

Nothing illegal

Lewis Rifkindof theYukon Conservation Society said the mine has done nothing illegal by leaving taxpayers to clean up the site, and that's a problem.

"These companies have done nothing illegal; they have used the laws to their own benefit and there's nothing wrong with that because that's how the laws are set up," he said.

It's time we learned.- Lewis Rifkind

"It's time we learnedfrom this long history of basically privatizing the profit but socializing the risk and expense of clean up.We have to change this. It's not good financially."

Rifkind pointedto Yukon Zinc, owner ofWolverine Mine, whichis under creditor protection. The company still owes the Yukon government $3 millionin security payments.

"Unless mining companies have the security deposit upfront we should not be permitting these mining companies to proceed."

The Yukon government is now in talks with Ottawa about the cleanup of the Ketza minesite.