Court Is Very Critical of Mining Company and Costs of Environmental Harm

A mining company went bankrupt and abandoned a mine it owned. The receiver for the bankruptcy process asked the court for approval for its procedure to solicit proposals to remediate the mine property. In approving the procedure, the court noted that, according to an environmental assessment, it’s estimated that the site contains about 55,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil, 300,000 cubic metres of tailings and 500,000 cubic metres of waste rock that require attention. The court said this case stands as ‘a painful reminder of the lasting and egregious damage that unscrupulous and unchecked profiteering can bring about in the mining sector. It is an embarrassment to Canada, Yukon and the responsible mining community. It is the hope of this court that this case will provide a valuable lesson’ to future governments and the taxpayers, who’ll pay the millions of dollars required to remediate the mine property [Yukon v. B.Y.G. Natural Resources Inc., [2017] YKSC 2 (CanLII), Jan. 16, 2017].