Just over 100 years ago, droves of people hunting for gold arrived in Yukon from all around the world in what became known as the Klondike Gold Rush. Dawson City became their mecca. The stampede lasted for about two years, then, almost overnight, they left.  

But the gold they came for remains, albeit contained mostly in harder-to-reach deposits. 

Enter the proposed Coffee Gold mine, which if built could be the largest gold mine the territory has ever seen. 

Proposed by Goldcorp Kaminak Ltd., a subsidiary of Newmont (a U.S.-based multinational corporation with mines everywhere from Africa to Nevada), the Coffee Gold mine would consist of four open pits about 130 kilometres south of Dawson City next to its namesake Coffee Creek, in a relatively undeveloped area.  

The Coffee Gold mine is currently under review by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, which just closed its second public engagement period. Here’s what you need to know about the proposal. 

How big is the Coffee Gold mine compared to other Yukon mines?

The Coffee property covers about 22,000 hectares, about half the size of Whitehorse. 

The project is expected to produce roughly 2.6 million ounces of gold during the 10 years it operates, according to the company’s proposal. While the amount of gold in the ground has yet to be confirmed, that projection could make it the largest gold mine in Yukon.

By comparison, Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Mine near Mayo — which is the largest gold mine in Yukon history — is expected to produce 2.1 million ounces of gold over 10 years. (It will operate for 11 years.) 

Another even larger mine is in the works, though: the Casino Mine Corporation is preparing a submission for a panel review — the most stringent type of environmental assessment — for its Casino Mine west of Carmacks, which would produce 8.9 million ounces of gold over roughly 22 years. The company also plans to mine for copper. 

The Coffee Gold project plans to employ 430 miners over the course of its life, while about 300 people work at the Eagle Gold mine. 

There are two operating mines in Yukon currently — Minto and Eagle. Coffee Gold and Casino are both under review. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

How will the gold be extracted?

The Coffee mine would use a process called cyanide heap leach to extract gold. Basically, gold ore is crushed and placed on a large pad, which could be upward of 80 metres high in places, according to the company’s proposal. A cyanide solution is then poured over the pile to separate gold from other rock. Beneath the rock pile is a synthetic liner, which shields the environment from leakage. The cyanide is collected, then recycled until it’s needed again. 

Cyanide, a naturally occurring chemical that can be lethal at high doses, is found in many things — from cigarette smoke to pesticides. 

While the cyanide heap leach process is commonly used in mining and eliminates the need for toxic tailings ponds, that doesn’t mean there aren’t environmental concerns, said Lewis Rifkind, the mining analyst at the Yukon Conservation Society, which entered a submission to the public engagement process. Plastic liners could rupture, he said.

“That’s where the concern is, especially in the North,” he said. “We’ve got weird ground conditions, you know, discontinuous permafrost, fractured ground rock. There’s always a risk putting these things in.”

The heap leach process is used at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine. Rifkind said he raised similar concerns when that mine was making its way through the environmental assessment process.

Rifkind wants to know whether the Coffee project will include two liners. That way if one breaks, there will be another to catch any leaks. 

“If they’re going to use it, it has to be of the highest quality possible, the highest standard possible,” he said.

What are the impacts of disturbing permafrost?

Permafrost covers a substantial amount of land across the North. In order to build, well, pretty much anything, this has to be taken into consideration. 

In a submission to the assessment board, Newmont said permafrost disturbance is “partially reversible.”

Katarzyna Nowak, a conservation science coordinator at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Yukon chapter, said she wants to know what this means exactly — how can permafrost damage be reversible, even partially?

“This project is admitting that it’s going to disturb permafrost,” she said. “Permafrost holds huge stores of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide, which are going to be released if disturbed. It also has the potential to release pathogens.”

Nowak said possible permafrost damage should be included in baseline measurements to determine potential impacts when the mine shutters.

Will the next great pandemic come from the permafrost?

What road infrastructure would have to be built?

The Coffee Gold mine would involve building a road called the Northern Access Route, which would total 214 kilometres. Existing roads make up about 100 kilometres of it. Construction would include upgrading a matrix of roads and trails sometimes used by placer miners, who sift through rocks and gravel in riverbeds for gold. The Stewart and Yukon Rivers need to be crossed, which would entail building a new barge landing and upgrading three others.  

Rifkind said this would mean a level of access the area has never seen before, adding that anyone with two-wheel drive would be able to enter. 

This creates concerns about the introduction of invasive species and added pressure on caribou and moose populations. 

The conservation society is requesting a cumulative effects study to address these issues.

It’s unclear if taxpayers would foot the bill for the road construction.

What about the Dawson land-use plan?

The Dawson Regional Planning Commission is working on a land-use plan with the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Yukon government to determine the implications of future land use. The plan will lay out how land will be managed and monitored.

The Umbrella Final Agreement, signed in 1993 by Yukon First Nations and the Yukon and Canadian governments, sets a framework for First Nations interested in settling land claims and lays out a roadmap regarding land-use planning. Eleven of 14 Yukon First Nations (including Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in) have settled their land claims and are self-governing — meaning they can create and enact laws, for example, and have far more jurisdiction than First Nations in southern Canada, most of which fall under the Indian Act.

A resource assessment report will be released this month, according to the commission’s website.

The Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society wants the Dawson land-use plan to be completed before a decision is made about the Coffee project. 

“A plan on how First Nations and people living in Dawson agree to use the land should really come first,” Nowak told The Narwhal.

Last summer, Yukon governments, including First Nations, inked the precedent-setting Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan, which protects most of the watershed.   

How will the mine be powered?

Roughly 90 per cent of power in Yukon comes from hydroelectricity. The two producing hard rock mines in Yukon — Minto, a copper-gold mine about 240 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse, and Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine — are connected to the grid, so the bulk of the power they use to fuel their operations is relatively clean. However, more remote projects that aren’t connected to the grid often have to burn fossil fuels and this would likely be the case for the Coffee mine.

Natural gas and diesel would be used to generate electricity at the mine, according to the company’s statement of scope of project submitted to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board. Roughly 19 million kilowatt hours of energy would be used annually — enough electricity to power about 1,357 Yukon homes for an entire year. 

Newmont is harnessing renewable energy elsewhere, however. One of the company’s mines in Nevada has solar arrays that power two wireless communication sites. Its Akyem mine in Ghana has a 120-kilowatt solar plant, which cut 32,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide during a five-month period, according to Omar Jabara, a Newmont spokesperson.

Asked whether the Coffee mine would use renewable energy, Jabara said, “Currently, our focus is exploration, and as we continue to grow our knowledge, we will continue to review energy alternatives [that] will support the long-term sustainability of the project.”

The Eagle Gold Mine in central Yukon. Photo: Bighouseproductions.ca

How could the Coffee Gold mine fit into Yukon’s climate change plan?

In November, the Yukon government unveiled a plan to tackle climate change, laying the groundwork to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent over 10 years. The final iteration of the plan is expected to be released next month.

The plan targets transportation, which accounts for about 62 per cent of emissions in Yukon, energy production and home heating, to name a few. It also sets in motion intensity-based targets for mines, which will be determined per kilotonne of emissions produced.

There’s too much wiggle room with these mine-specific targets, said Rifkind, because if production ramps up, so too do greenhouse gas emissions.

This is why the Coffee project doesn’t align with the aspirations of the plan, he said.

“We’re trying to get overall greenhouse gas emissions down. If we go to intensity targets, we could end up in a situation where our greenhouse gases go through the roof, especially if some very large mines come online like Casino.”

“As long as your emissions keep going up, you’re not addressing the core issue. We’ve introduced an economic argument into what is an environmental issue.” 

Do local communities have concerns about Coffee Gold?

The Narwhal recently reported that another mine project in Yukon is stoking concern among First Nations leaders. Ann Maje Raider, the executive director of the Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society, said the proposed Kudz Ze Kayah mine could negatively impact First Nations women and girls if issues aren’t addressed.

There are similar concerns when it comes to the Coffee Gold mine.

Aja Mason, director of Yukon Status of Women Council, said a greater influx of transient, male workers in the area could lead to a spike in violence against women. 

“The Yukon territory has some of the highest rates of domestic and sexualized violence reported across the country. It’s already sort of a tinder box for domestic violence. That insight applies to any type of extractive project in the Yukon.”

The organization submitted feedback to the assessment board, pointing out that Carmacks and Dawson “have some of the highest rates of reported drug, alcohol, domestic and sexualized violence in Yukon.”

The project is near three communities — Dawson City, Carmacks and Destruction Bay. The closest women’s shelter is in Dawson, Mason said. 

“If you’re living in Carmacks, that’s like a four-hour drive,” she said.

Mason wants to see a social remediation fund established by Newmont to create more support services for women and girls in the area. She also wants the company to spearhead regular training sessions regarding the history of violence and colonization in Yukon, along with ongoing anti-harassment and anti-sexualized-violence training. A third-party monitoring program should be established to track possible impacts of the project, especially against Indigenous women, she said.

In 2018, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in signed a collaboration agreement with Goldcorp. Baked into it are assurances such as jobs for citizens and environmental protections.

“I think for the most part the major issues have been addressed,” Chief Roberta Joseph told The Narwhal, noting that the First Nation worked with the company prior to submitting an application to the assessment body. “It’s an ongoing process because from time to time there are changes that need to be reviewed.”

Issues that have been addressed between the company and First Nation include ensuring adequate data collection and reclamation plans, Joseph said. 

According to the proposal, reclamation plans involve annual water monitoring, capping the heap leach operation and installing boulders at pits.  

Yukon First Nations leaders fear mine will increase violence against women in ‘land of the caribou’

Where is the project at in the environmental assessment process?

The environmental assessment process can be best characterized as a long round of pinball, with information going back and forth between the company, the public, First Nations, NGOs and government departments. Eventually, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board makes a recommendation to governments, which they can accept or reject.

When it comes to the Coffee Gold mine, this pinball game has lasted about three years already. Prior to being bought by Newmont, Goldcorp first submitted a project application in 2017, with a public comment period in 2018.  

The project underwent significant project changes last year, spurring another public comment period, which closed in March. Those changes included increasing the rate of production and revising the rock storage plans, Yeomans said. The assessment body went back to the company on April 29 with 44 requests for more information to address outstanding issues.

“The ball is now in their court to go through these questions and supply the information,” Yeomans said, adding that Newmont has upward of two years to provide more information.   

“We don’t expect it to be that long.”

The assessment body is in the process of completing a draft screening report, which will encapsulate public comments and additional information supplied by the company — providing the clearest picture of the project to date and identifying outstanding issues.

Yeomans said all comments gleaned during the public engagement period are being considered.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

WHITEHORSE, Yukon — Roughly 10 miners from Saskatchewan arrived in Dawson City, Yukon, last weekend and two members of the group ignored self-isolation rules and entered a store, according to the chairperson of the community’s emergency measures organization.

Yukon requires all people arriving to the territory to self-isolate immediately for 14 days.

Mike Masserey told The Narwhal members of the group were heading to a mine site in the area, where they intended to self-isolate.

He said stores have notices informing people not to enter prior to self-isolating. Despite this, two members of the group entered a general store to stock up on supplies, Masserey said.

“I think they should get fined,” he said, adding that they drove into Whitehorse on April 3 and were in Dawson the next day.

“If they contracted the virus anywhere along the line … we don’t know. They don’t know either, but they know what the rules are, and yet they don’t see a problem with coming in and shopping at our stores.”

Masserey said if staff who run the two stores that sell food get sick, the community is in trouble. “Dawson is dead. We have no supply of food.”

Placer mining is common in the Dawson City area. Miners scoop up rocks and gravel from riverbeds, sort through them for gold and then dump the waste rock in a process that can severely damage streams.

In a territory that has a gold panner on its licence plates, placer mining is seen as a low-cost way for small-scale operators to get into the mining business without having to front the costs associated with starting a larger mine.

Masserey has seen other miners pass through the community as well. He said roughly a week and a half  ago, two miners flew in from Europe and stopped in town for groceries. Another one drove up from Florida about three weeks ago. Masserey said he instructed him to stay away from Dawson City and the miner said he planned to live out of his truck.

Mining in Yukon has been deemed an essential service, but there are still guidelines for the industry to follow. Last week, emergency measures were introduced that made self-isolation upon entering the territory law. Failing to do so can result in jail time of up to six months, fines or both.

A spokesperson with the RCMP said roughly eight people travelled to Yukon from Lloydminster, Sask., in a convoy, noting no charges are being laid. The group is self-isolating outside of the town’s limits.

“Two females in the group were responsible for getting groceries for the group and stated that they had self-isolated prior to the drive,” said Alma Edwards, acting director of strategic communications for Yukon RCMP. “There was a misunderstanding that they had to self-isolate once entering a new province or territory.”

“Neither of the females were exhibiting signs, symptoms of illness and were provided education by the responding police officer.”

As of April 8, there have been no charges under the Civil Emergency Measures Act, according to a spokesperson with the Department of Community Services.

“Our goal is not to charge people but to educate the public and have voluntary compliance,” Breagha Fraser said in a written statement to The Narwhal.

‘It’s just being negligent’: Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in chief

Roberta Joseph, chief of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation in Dawson City, raised concerns that placer miners entering the area are not taking self-isolation seriously, potentially jeopardizing the health of people there and in Yukon at large.

Miners flying from the south could spread COVID-19 to Dawson City residents, Joseph told The Narwhal, adding that spring breakup is when some come back to the region from out of the territory.

“It’s just being negligent towards and [showing] a lack of respect towards the people in our community who live here year-round,” she said.

Brooke Rudolph, executive director of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association, said placer miners from 15 businesses are currently self-isolating, but she didn’t know exactly how many people. She said those who are self-isolating or have self-isolated had returned to Yukon in about the past two weeks.

The association’s members are primarily Yukoners. Membership hovers around 200, which includes businesses and individuals. Not all members are miners.

Some placer miners choose to live and work in Yukon during the summer months, Rudolph said.

“Really, they just came home,” she said.

The placer miners’ association rolled out measures of its own. It introduced a tracking system, for instance, that allows it to keep tabs on who’s self-isolating and where they visited and when, Rudolph said. After self-isolation, miners’ whereabouts are also documented. It’s voluntary for miners to share their information.

“We believe that placer mining can safely and responsibly occur and also provide economic benefit, not just to the Yukon but also small communities, which will really make a positive impact in light of a total decline in tourism,” Rudolph said.

She didn’t know how many placer miners have returned to Yukon recently, adding that most came back to Yukon before COVID-19 hit the territory. The territory’s first case was confirmed on March 22.

Gold seekers are flooding into the Yukon and wreaking havoc on its rivers

Enforcement officers now monitoring entries to Yukon

Travellers are now required to fill out a travel declaration, notify officials of self-isolation plans and provide contact information at the border and airport.

Earlier this week, John Streicker, minister of community services, said there are now enforcement officers posted at entries 24/7, including at the Whitehorse International Airport to meet incoming flights.

“With our outreach, notifications and the border measures in place, we are managing the situation as thoroughly as we can,” Jesse Devost, a spokesperson with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, said in a written statement to The Narwhal. “All miners should have been aware for several days now when encountering the checkpoint in Watson Lake or the Whitehorse airport of the need to self-isolate.”

Devost said the department doesn’t know how many placer miners have arrived, noting that they aren’t required to check in with mining recorders — officials in field offices who register claims, process permits and collect fees.

“The claim owners do need to visit the mining recorder usually later in the year to report the work they did to their claims, and we will continue to conduct that business with them, under our COVID-responsive office practises,” he said.

A 2002 study found that as many as five per cent of Yukon streams have been affected by placer mining, which “has resulted in extensive changes to stream channel morphology and stability.”

Dawson City Mayor Wayne Potoroka said it’s not only placer miners — everyone needs to follow the rules.

He said some people have been “late to the party,” noting there were groups of people congregating downtown recently, including locals.

Potoroka said the municipality has made it easy for people to self-isolate by working with several hotels that offered to cut their nightly rates in half.

There have been some changes, he said, since enforcement officers have been stationed at checkpoints.

“If you’re coming up the road now, there’s a stop,” he said. “You’re gonna get the hard talk.”

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The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This is part two of Land Crafted: a five-part video series exploring entrepreneurship in northern Canada.

The signposts on the road to Mayo, Yukon, have a little icon of a mine cart on them. The cart is overflowing with ore intended to represent silver — after all, the highway, 22A, is known as the Silver Trail. That name hearkens back to the region’s history, steeped in the silver and gold mines that brought prosperity to the region in the late 19th century.

Back then, mining was the only game in town for Keno, now a museum-like ghost town, and Mayo to the south. Today that history is repeating itself with the opening of the Victoria Gold project between the two tiny towns.

That renewed gold rush is creating a flurry of activity as new companies form, people snap up land and there’s a job for everyone. That means higher prices and higher salaries, so for those in any business but mining, the upswing starts to look like a liability. It is putting new strain on some facets of the economy even while it helps others.

“I grew up with entrepreneurship around me,” says Joella Hogan, a member of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation in Mayo. With her father and brother both owning businesses, Joella set out to have a business of her own.

“In my head I always knew that I would have a side business eventually.”

Joella Hogan is the owner of the Yukon Soap Company. Photo: Eric Pinkerton / EntrepreNorth

But she wanted to stay in Mayo, in her traditional territory.

Hogan bought Yukon Soaps, an established local brand, as a way to explore her entrepreneurial drive without having to leave her community.

“When the opportunity came up to buy this small soap-making business, I really saw it as an opportunity to re-connect our people to the land,” she says.

The shelves overflowing with curing soap in her basement are a testament to how successful she has been in that venture. With support from the community, including young people willing to help her harvest local plants and package the soap, she is building a small business in a town dominated by the vagaries of a much larger one.

As is the case for most of Mayo’s businesses, the mine is among Joella’s customers, regularly ordering soap from her.

The business has grown enough that, recently, Hogan felt it was time to move it into its own location in the heart of Mayo.

“I want to be a bigger part of the community; I want a presence downtown,” she says.

But the mine has set off a buying spree downtown. Speculators are holding on to prime real estate in the run-down town, hoping for big returns as the mine is built.

“If you drive downtown Mayo, there’s a lot of empty lots and vacant old buildings,” she says. It’s an understatement: row upon row of abandoned buildings lean precipitously on streets that once teemed with the last generation of gold miners. Up the highway, in Keno, much of the town has become a living museum — a testament to the kind of prosperity a gold rush brings, the kind that’s here one day and gone the next.

After weeks of hunting, Hogan happened upon a good candidate among the high-priced lots. She jumped on it, and has begun planning for the construction. There, too, she will face challenges: many skilled tradespeople in the area have been hired by the mine, meaning contractors are hard to come by. Nevertheless, she is pressing on with her vision.

“I want it to be Mayo’s soap business,” she says.

This series was made possible with the support of EntrepreNorth; however, the organization did not have editorial input into the videos or articles published on The Narwhal.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Yukon-based mining company Gabriel Resources Ltd. sent an ultimatum this week to one of the poorest countries in Europe to either approve its Rosia Montana gold mine project or face a $4-billion lawsuit.  

If approved, the project will create the largest open-pit mine in Europe in an area many have argued should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its natural beauty and unique history. The Romans mined gold at Rosia Montana over two thousand years ago.

Thousands took to the streets across Romania last week to protest Gabriel Resources’ project in what is being called the “Romanian Autumn." Earlier this week the Romanian Prime Minister – a supporter of the project – conceded Parliament would most likely reject the Rosia Montana project because of its unpopularity.

Last Wednesday, Gabriel’s CEO Jonathan Henry struck back in a manner that is becoming typical of Canadian mining companies operating overseas – approve the project or else.

“The Rosia Montana project is really a bad news project,” says Jamie Kneen, communications and outreach coordinator for MiningWatch Canada.

“In fifteen years of trying to make this project a reality Gabriel Resources has failed to redesign the project to accommodate people’s concerns or address the issues associated with the project,” Kneen told DeSmog. MiningWatch Canada is an Ottawa-based organization promoting mining policies and practices that are in the public interest.

Canadian mining companies already have one of the worst reputations in the world.  Companies such as Gabriel are not helping Canada’s case.

“If the lower house [of parliament] does reject the project, we will go ahead with formal notification to commence litigation for multiple breaches of international investment treaties for up to $4-billion,” Henry said in a phone interview with the Globe and Mail.

It is unclear which “international investment treaties” Henry is referring to because Gabriel has yet to name which ones Romania is breaching. His words did send Gabriel’s stocks up 15 per cent though.

Gabriel’s stocks took a 50 per cent nose-dive earlier this week when Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta expressed his doubt the draft law for mining Rosia Montana would receive parliamentary approval.

“There is a majority opposed to the bill,” Ponta had to admit last Monday.

Henry vowed to make Gabriel’s case against Romania “very public” to the extent that “Romania’s effort to attract foreign investment will suffer greatly.”

If approved, the Rosia Montana project would level four mountains, wipe three villages off the map and displace hundreds of rural Romanians. Despite this some villagers want the mine to get the go-ahead because of the jobs Gabriel has promised them.

"We want to mine! We want to work!" shouted a group of miners demonstrating at Rosia Montana’s town hall on September 9th.

One of the largest concerns opponents of the Rosia Montana project have is the use of cyanide to process gold.

“Rosia Montana involves mining large volumes of low grade ore,” says Kneen of MiningWatch.

“To separate the gold from the ore it’ll be crushed up and sprayed with cyanide out in the open. This is a practice that has been banned in places such as the state of Montana because of dangers it poses to the environment and communities,” Kneen told DeSmog.

It is estimated the Rosia Montana project will produce 250 million tons of toxic tailings laced with cyanide. Gabriel plans on storing these tailings in a huge dam. In 2000, cyanide laced tailings from a gold mining project in northwestern Romania leached into two rivers and contaminated the drinking water of 2.5 million people.

Gabriel has a lot riding on Rosia Montana. The company has never operated a mine before and all its projects (the company only has two) revolve around Rosia Montana. Gabriel claims to have spent over $500 million on the project over the fifteen years the company has been seeking approval and they have very little to show for it.

“Investors in Rosia Montana should really be questioning what their money has actually gone to,” Kneen told DeSmog.

Romanian Parliament is currently debating whether to approve or reject the draft law for mining Rosia Montana. In the meantime, protests against Gabriel’s gold mining project are expected to continue throughout the week culminating with a global day of action on September 15th.

Image Credit: Hanuta Flickr, Past Horizons

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.