Reclamation and closure work underway at the abandoned Minto Mine continues despite talk of a sale, say Yukon government officials.

They say lessons learned from past mine closures led them to take quick and decisive action this time, and to stick to it.

“One lesson we learned from the Wolverine Mine is that time is of the essence when an operator abandons its site to implement steps of protecting the environment,” Darren Stahl, the director of abandoned mines for the Yukon government, said at a media briefing Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, an Oct. 6 deadline approaches for initial bids in the PricewaterhouseCoopers-led sale process. Uncertainty remains as to whether ex-employees and contractors will ever get fully paid for work performed at the site prior to closure.

Stahl and several other government officials provided a bit clearer picture of what happened when the mine was abandoned on May 13.

Stephen Mead, the assistant deputy minister of mineral resources and geoscience services, said officials thought the mine was going to be expanded, not closed.

“When we got that call from the company that said, ‘just want to inform you that we are leaving the site immediately and will be gone by tomorrow,’” he said. “That was a complete surprise.”

When the company walked off the site, the entire board of directors resigned.

Any contractors and employees working at the site, along with several government agencies, were left claiming a combined $66 million was owed to them, according to documents from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“There’s lots of parties that are owed money,” Mead said after the briefing.

It is still uncertain whether anyone will be held personally responsible or if any of the money will ever be paid.

“It’s certainly clear that when the board of directors resigned and disappeared, the access to them as a responsible individuals got very challenging,” Mead said.

These contractors could get paid through the receivership process should there be a sale, but that is not guaranteed. And they may not get the full amount owed.

With the long list of creditors, Mead said legal action against people who were formally members of the Minto board is still not out of the question.

“Any one of those individuals could potentially take legal action independently themselves,” he said.

At this point, it will likely be up to those creditors to decide if they want to put up more to pay the legal costs involved.

“It’s expensive,” Mead said. “And when you’re owed a lot of money, do you want to invest more money?”

At the briefing, Mead detailed the emergency measures that were needed to keep contaminated water from spilling out into the surrounding environment.

Officials were surprised and scrambling to get control of a situation in which they needed boots on the ground immediately.

The mine was abandoned right as spring snow-melt was peaking and water levels in tailings ponds were at their highest.

“This is right before freshet,” Mead said. “You can’t run skinny. You can’t say, ‘well, we need 20 (people), but let’s see if we can do it with 15.’”

Once they got through the initial phase of trying to get a handle on the water issues, they began to coalesce around a plan to work toward closure of the mine, even though the mine could possibly sell and be re-opened.

This includes plans to flood the underground portions of the mine starting in November.

Mead said mines like this one have been flooded only to be drained again when someone decided to re-open the site.

Minto has a security fund set up to pay for this closure, which was at $75.2 million when the mine was abandoned.

Officials say they have not deviated from what the reclamation plan would be even if the mine was not up for sale.

At the time of abandonment, the mine’s owners owed about $18 million more into this security fund, though Mead and the other officials said this money was owed for work that the mine owners had planned in the future, but had not yet done.

These security funds are tied to any activity that is planned up to two years into the future.

Considering the activities that were actually going on at the mine when it closed, Mead thinks they will be covered without that $18 million.

“I think we’re confident that that money will pay for all the work we need to do to protect the environment,” he said.

As far as the sale goes, Mead said it is in the hands of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who were appointed as receiver over the mine’s assets by the B.C. Supreme Court.

“We don’t know what the outcome is going to be,” Mead said. “We do know that there are copper reserves in that area, we know that there’s still minerals in the ground so to speak.”

Premier Ranj Pillai told reporters this morning he expects more discussion about this situation in the upcoming legislative sitting, which will begin Wednesday, but he also struck a positive tone about the potential for a sale.

“The sense that we are getting right now is that there are a number of different companies that have the financial wherewithal and expertise to be able to go into Minto,” Pillai said. “And we know there’s a global demand for copper.”