10:20 AM EDT, 06/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Shares of Victoria Gold ( VITFF ) were down 83% early on Tuesday, a day after the company reported the collapse of the heap-leach pad at its Eagle gold mine in the Yukon.

Victoria Gold ( VITFF ) said after market close Monday operations at the mine have been suspended following the collapse. While no injuries resulted from the incident, the company said there was some damage to infrastructure and portions of the pad escaped environmental containment. Heap-leach mining uses a cyanide solution to extract gold from ores.

The Yukon News reported the failure came after a landslide at the site, similar to a February collapse of the leach pad at SSR Mining's ( SSRGF ) Copler mine in Turkey, which killed nine workers. Production there is not expected to resume until 2026 at the earliest.

BMO Capital Markets on Tuesday withdrew its price target on the company's shares and downgraded its rating to market perform, speculative risk, from a last reported rating of outperform, following the drop.

"Yesterday afternoon, Victoria Gold ( VITFF ) announced a heap leach failure 'incident' at its Eagle Gold mine in the Yukon. At this time there is little by which to gauge the prospects or timelines for the mine ... We are adjusting our recommendation to Market Perform with a Speculative qualification as we expect the shares to hold some floor value until guidance is made available to the market," analyst Andrew Mikitchook wrote.

The company's shares were last seen down $6.23 to $1.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with near 3-million shares traded, the second most-active issue on the exchange.

Price: 1.20, Change: -6.23, Percent Change: -83.85