‘Ride of a lifetime’: First 72 hours after Victoria Gold mine’s cyanide-laden slide

By Dana Hatherly – Yukon News

Michael Gordon was running a dozer on the heap leach facility at Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold Mine on what he described as a “beautiful day” under the midnight sun. It was around 5:35 a.m. on June 24, 2024, near the end of his 12-hour overnight shift at the mine site north of Mayo, Yukon. The now-35-year-old man could see the truck he was waiting for in the distance, so he got ready for it. 

But out of the corner of his right eye he also saw “millions of spider cracks” forming around the piece of heavy equipment he was operating. Gordon did not even complete his emergency call over the radio before the ground below him started slipping and sliding down the slope. 

“I realized that the landslide was happening,” he told the News by phone.