03:53 PM EDT, 07/03/2024 (MT Newswires) -- A Yukon First Nation is calling for a stop to all mining in its traditional territory as uncertainty swirls over the scale of environmental damage caused by the failure of a gold processing plant, The Globe and Mail newspaper is reporting Wednesday.

It noted giant piles of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed last week at a heap leach facility at the Eagle gold mine in central Yukon operated by Victoria Gold Corp. ( VITFF ), triggering a landslide that likely released toxic cyanide into the environment.

The rockslide, which satellite imagery shows to be about 1500 meters long up to 370 meters wide, caused widespread damage to mine infrastructure including the heap leach pad, the report said.

It noted heap leaching involves stacking mined ore into outdoor piles and then sprinkling it with water laced with cyanide. The facility at the Eagle mine was designed to hold as much as 92 million tonnes of ore.

Neither the company nor the Yukon government, which is investigating the accident, has revealed specifics around the extent of the damage, The Globe added.

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