The Yukon government will soon be solely responsible for the abandoned Wolverine mine in southeast Yukon.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) applied to the Yukon Supreme Court Feb.13 to be discharged as the receiver for the troubled zinc mine, a role it’s had since 2019.

Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan of the Yukon Supreme Court approved the discharge.

The Yukon government says it has spent $42 million to date on the mine, including receivership costs.

PWC oversaw the transition of care-and-maintenance activities to contractor Boreal Engineering Ltd. The sale of leased equipment is underway as well, by Welichem Research General Partnership.

Earlier efforts to sell the mine itself by PWC were unsuccessful.

“(The Yukon government) continues to protect the environment and human health and safety at the site while remediation planning advances,” Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) spokesperson John Thompson said in an email today.

“This work includes water management and treatment, and environmental monitoring.”

The Ross River Dena Council (RRDC) has recently expressed their interest in participating in the closure and remediation process and has recently identified resources to support this interest, Thompson said.

“EMR anticipates working closely with RRDC over the 2024 calendar year. We will also be discussing a similar arrangement with Liard First Nation.”

PWC told the court the receivership cost more than $21.5 million over the course of four years. Expenses included environmental monitoring, labour and insurance.

The last owner of the mine, the Yukon Zinc Corp., had posted only $10.5 million as financial security before it filed for bankruptcy in 2015 after almost four years in production.

At the time of bankruptcy, Yukon Zinc owed approximately $650 million, of which $600 million was owed to Jinduicheng Canada Resources, its parent company.

Some 300 workers were laid off and lengthy bankruptcy procedures saw those companies owed money receive just 11 cents on the dollar.

Lewis Rifkind, a mining analyst at the Yukon Conservation Society, said Monday, “YCS is disappointed that once again, taxpayers will be on the hook to do care, maintenance, closure and remediation on yet another Yukon minesite.

“This one will cost tens of millions of dollars. It would appear Yukon regulators have learnt nothing from past mine failures (Faro, Mt. Nansen, Keno, Clinton Creek, Ketza River, etc.) for us to arrive once again at a mine failure that not only costs taxpayers untold millions but also poses a grave risk to the environment,” Rifkind added.

“YCS very strongly hopes that the lessons from Wolverine (and, of course, the situation playing out at the Minto Mine) is taken to heart by the Yukon government and that no more mines are approved without detailed closure plans and enough financial security to ensure the mine can be closed and remediation in an environmentally safe manner.”