Atlantic Gold springs an effluent leak, plugs a new mine, and sells itself to investors
Part of the tailings facility at the Touquoy gold mine. Photo courtesy: SMRA
This article first appeared in The Halifax Examiner on March 15, 2019.
By Joan Baxter
Atlantic Gold’s manager of environment and permitting, James Millard, calls it a “spill” or a “loss of control” caused by a “gasket failure.”
By whatever name, the event happened on the night of January 3, 2019, at the company’s open pit gold mine at Moose River. It involved 380,000 litres of contaminant-laced slurry, which flowed from the processing plant where ore is crushed and gold extracted, and down a trench underneath the double-lined 500-metre pipe that should have been carrying the effluent to the tailings pond.
The leaked slurry flowed into a lined pond that Millard says was developed and designed for leaks.
During an open house that Atlantic Gold held in Sheet Harbour on Thursday to showcase one of three new gold mines that it wants to open on the Eastern Shore, Millard told me the incident was reported immediately to Nova Scotia Environment, as the amount exceeded spill limits. He said the department has inspected the site and been working with Atlantic Gold.
Continue reading Leak at Moose River gold mine raises environmental concerns