Victoria Gold Corp., the owner of the Eagle Gold Mine north of Mayo, broke its silence Monday with its first news release since July 12.

The company has refused to comment for the most part since the June 24 landslide at the site. In Monday’s rare communication, it responded to recent statements from the Yukon government criticizing it for not fulfilling orders and directives for work to be done at the site.

“Victoria’s focus continues to be on the safety of its employees and mitigation of harm to the environment,” the statement reads.

“As previously reported, the company has and will continue to liaise with the Government of Yukon, the First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun (“FNNND”), the Village of Mayo, the Yukon Workers’ Safety and Compensation Board and other regulatory authorities.”

The statement zeroed in on several specific problem areas at the site.

“Victoria is actively sampling water daily from multiple sample locations at the Eagle Mine. Several of these sample locations are located downstream from the location of the heap leach failure incident.

“As previously disclosed in Victoria’s news release dated July 12, the company has detected trace amounts of cyanide in Haggart Creek downstream of the incident. The majority of samples tested by the company downstream have not detected any cyanide.”

The company noted it has detected minor amounts of WAD cyanide in seven of 134 samples collected as of July 23 downstream of the incident in Haggart Creek. These results range from concentrations of 5.2 to 9.3 parts per billion WAD cyanide.

The company’s Downstream Water Quality Objectives pursuant to its water use licence for cyanide are five parts per billion WAD cyanide.

For context, it pointed out, the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality establish a maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) of 200 parts per billion free cyanide.

Victoria Gold also emphasized its efforts on water storage and treatment.

“Since the heap Leach failure incident, as previously disclosed, within hours of the incident a pumping system was established to return contact water to lined containment ponds. The company is also collecting and storing groundwater in lined containment ponds.

“In addition, in order to further manage contact water at the Eagle Gold Mine, the company is completing the expedited construction of additional lined water storage on site. This additional storage will supplement pre-existing lined water storage capacity at Eagle.”

The company went on to say it has augmented its water treatment capacity on site.

“This includes the modification of piping, the addition of tankage and the procurement and installation of a reverse Osmosis (“RO”) plant which will be used as a final stage of water treatment.”

Most of these actions follow the directives issued by the Yukon government – although there was no acknowledgement that deadlines for some of this work have not been met. So far, the government has yet to announce any penalties for the missing deadlines.

As Victoria Gold has said previously, “production operations remain suspended and may not restart without authorization from the Yukon Director of Mineral Resources.

“There can be no assurance that the company will receive authorizations necessary to restart production, or that the company will have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”

On Tuesday, John McConnell, the company’s president and CEO, finally spoke about the incident in a video interview with CBC Yukon.

During that interview, McConnell said he took personal responsibility for the disaster as the head of the company.

He also said the company has enough financial resources in place to keep going for up to six months before seeking additional support. The company has no plans to walk away from the mine, he added.

“We’re not out of the woods yet and we have a lot of work to do,” McConnell said in the interview.

He said he thought the likelihood of any major problems following the incident has now passed.

He also acknowledged the company’s relationship with the First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun isn’t good at the moment.

“There’s no doubt our relationship with the NND is strained right now.”