Justice Ron Veale of the Yukon Supreme Court says he wanted to take his time writing his reasons for last May’s decision involving the abandoned Mount Nansen gold mine.

He wanted to take his time because he wanted to draw attention to the substantial cost to Canadians left behind by the unscrupulous actions of B.Y.G. Natural Resources.

Those actions have and will continue to cost the country dearly, he says in his Jan. 16 reasons.

Veale writes: “Although it is fair to say that there have been substantial changes to the mining approval and monitoring regime since BYG was granted the right to operate in the Territory in the late 1990’s, 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 of Yukon and Canada, and the taxpayers who will pay the millions of dollars required to remediate the BYG mine property.”

BYG in 1996 went into production at the Mount Nansen mine, located just west of Carmacks.

It failed to meet the obligations of its water licence in a year’s time, but was back operating again a couple of months later after demonstrating its ability to comply.

The company operated for another year or so, then again failed to live up to the obligations of its water licence, was fined $300,000 in 1999 by territorial court Judge Heino Lilles, and eventually walked away.

Canadians have been paying to babysit the site ever since, and an estimated cost of more than $30 million, according to records.

Last May, Veale approved a plan to solicit proposals for remediation of the site to bring about permanent closure and return the site to as close to natural as possible.

Three companies have bid, and the selection is scheduled to occur before the end of the year.

Included in the reclamation requirements is tearing down the tailings dam, reclaiming the valley below and moving all the contaminated tailings into the open pit, along with all the acid and non-acid generating waste rock.

The reclamation proposal estimates the need to move 745,000 cubic metres of material – or some 75,000 loads by a regular tandem dump truck.

In his written reasons, Veale recalled the words of Judge Lilles in finding BYG guilty of polluting the environment with contaminated water through blatant negligence, and what Veale referred to as criminal behaviour.

Back in 1999, Lilles said the company’s actions “demonstrate an attitude consistent with ‘raping and pillaging’ the resources of the Yukon....

While Veale notes in his 10 pages of written reasons that substantial improvements to regulations and monitoring have taken place since BYG, he cautions taxpayers need to stand guard and be vigilant.

In his reasons, he refers to the blight on the environment left behind by the Faro mine that was abandoned in 1998, “one of Canada’s largest environmental disasters....”

The running tab for Canadians to look after the Faro mine is at $200 million to $250 million, and it could hit a billion dollars by the time all is said and done, Veale points out in his reasons.

He also emphasizes that since the Yukon government took over responsibility in 2003 for approving and regulating new mines, any cost of addressing failures such as BYG and Faro from 2003 onwards would fall to Yukoners alone.

After assuming responsibility for mining, the Yukon passed legislation ensuring companies pay as they go.

The reclamation security is supposed to make sure the companies have enough money held in trust by the Yukon government to cover the cost of reclaiming the work they’ve done to date, and the project is reassessed every two years.

The Minto Mine, for instance, currently has $72 million in its reclamation security fund.

See letter.