Receivership ending at Yukon's abandoned Wolverine mine, gov't now looks to closure, remediation

The firm managing the affairs of the company that abandoned the Wolverine mine in southeastern Yukon will soon be stepping away. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been the receiver for the now-defunct Yukon Zinc Corporation since 2019, successfully applied to be discharged from the receivership in Yukon Supreme Court this week. 

The move marks the end of a major chapter in the saga of the Wolverine mine, located on Kaska territory roughly halfway between Ross River and Watson Lake, Yukon. A judge previously described it as an "irresponsible mining venture" that has forced the Yukon to spend tens of millions of dollars in emergency environmental protection measures since Yukon Zinc began neglecting the property in 2017 before fully abandoning it and declaring bankruptcy. 

During a half-hour hearing Tuesday, lawyer Emma Newbery, representing PricewaterhouseCoopers, argued the firm had met all of its obligations under the receivership, including helping to get the site stabilized and also running, albeit unsuccessfully, a sales process for the property. 

Care-and-maintenance activities at the site have also been successfully transitioned over to a Yukon government contractor, Newbery said, and a sale of equipment that Yukon Zinc leased from a third party has been proceeding smoothly without the firm's involvement. 

The application was not opposed by the Yukon government. 

Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan, who was presiding over the hearing, approved the discharge, describing the Wolverine mine file as a "complex one which had a lot of hiccups." She also thanked PricewaterhouseCoopers for its work, but noted the factors that led to the receivership in the first place.

"It's not the outcome that anyone would have wanted — it's a sad state of affairs, actually, but the receiver did the best it could in the circumstances, in my view,"  Duncan said.

An order officially discharging PricewaterhouseCoopers as receiver is expected to be signed in the coming days. The Yukon government, at that point, will become solely responsible for the mine, though PricewaterhouseCoopers will remain a trustee on Yukon Zinc's bankruptcy file and keep its mineral claims in good standing. 

The receivership, according to a report filed by the firm to the court, cost more than $21.5 million over the course of just more than four years, with expenses including labour, operating expenses, environmental monitoring, insurance and taxes. Nearly $20.5 million of those costs were paid for via advances from the Yukon government. 

The Yukon's Department of Energy, Mines and Resources did not have anyone available for comment on the development Wednesday. However, department spokesperson John Thompson wrote in an email that the Yukon government "remains committed to the reclamation and closure" at the site.

"Our next step at Wolverine will be to engage with the Kaska First Nations to develop final reclamation and closure objectives for the site, and update the remediation and closure plan accordingly," Thompson wrote.

"We continue to protect the environment and human health and safety at the site while remediation planning advances. This work includes water management and treatment, and environmental monitoring."

The Yukon government, according to Thompson, has spent approximately $42 million on activities at Wolverine to date. 

Yukon Zinc only ever put down roughly $10.5 million in financial security for the mine, meaning the territory has been on the hook for any expenses beyond that amount. The company was supposed to furnish a total of $35.5 million but abandoned the site instead.