VANCOUVER, BC
, Nov. 19, 2025 /CNW/ - BQE Water Inc. (TSXV: BQE), a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters is pleased to provide an update on the Eagle Gold Mine project.
Following the heap leach failure at the mine in 2024, BQE Water designed, implemented, and operated an emergency water treatment plant, and has discharged over 1 million cubic meters of clean water safely into the environment, under contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. in its capacity as court appointed Receiver of Victoria Gold Corp. (the "Receiver"). With the remaining inventory of contaminated water on site greatly reduced by BQE Water this year, and with adequate storage now available, active operations and discharge into the environment are expected to cease in November 2025 and a winterization plan developed by BQE Water is expected to be complete prior to demobilization from site by December 15, 2025.
In further development, BQE Water submitted a proposal in response to the tender for the design and implementation of a long-term water treatment solution at Eagle Mine and was later selected by the Receiver to carry out the first phase of engineering with a contract entered on November 4, 2025. It is anticipated that the first phase will complete by the middle of Q1 2026. Due to the complexity of water composition and to support all possible project scenarios, the long-term treatment plant will combine multiple new processes. One of these is a process for the removal of cobalt-cyanide complexes to trace levels using ion exchange. The process was developed and pilot tested by BQE Water at Eagle Mine during the 2025 operation season. The long-term treatment design also includes the use of BQE Water's direct electro-reduction of selenium to be deployed if/when required.
A key aspect of the new design is a smooth, expedient, and cost-effective transition from BQE Water's emergency treatment process to the new permanent system starting with the anticipated re-start of water treatment prior to 2026 spring freshet, and a gradual expansion of treatment adding new treatment stages for cobalt-cyanide, nitrogen species, and selenium if required.
David Kratochvil, the President and CEO of BQE Water, stated, "Expedient implementation of emergency treatment and safe discharge of over 1 million cubic meters of clean water from Eagle into the environment is one of the success stories of the project. We are also very pleased that our proposal for long-term treatment was selected to provide definitive costs for implementation of the permanent long-term treatment at Eagle, supporting both further stabilization and remediation work at site. BQE Water's seasoned operations team which integrates operators from a Na-Cho Nyäk Dun owned business will be ready to re-start clean water production in the spring of 2026."
About BQE Water's Work at Eagle Gold Mine Since September 2024
BQE Water was contracted by the Receiver, as water treatment consultants and operations specialists to assist with the emergency response at the Eagle Gold Mine situated on the Traditional Territory of the First Nation Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) in central Yukon, which experienced a failure in its cyanide heap leach facility. As a result of the failure and the pre-existing water treatment plant being unable to treat cyanide leach solution to produce non-toxic effluent, an emergency solution had to be developed and implemented quickly. Working collaboratively with the technical advisors to the Yukon Government, the FNNND, the Receiver, and past Victoria Gold employees, the BQE Water team developed and implemented a treatment process combining existing plant equipment with off-the-shelf rental equipment and newly constructed ponds. Engineering design, lab testing, procurement, operations, and toxicological data analysis had to be carried out simultaneously to ensure safe and timely discharge of treated water into the environment.
About BQE Water
BQE Water is a service provider specializing in water treatment and management for metals mining, smelting and refining. We are helping to transform the way the industry thinks about water in the context of natural resource projects by offering services and expertise which enables more sustainable water management practices and improved overall project performance at reduced risks. BQE Water invests in innovation and has developed unique intellectual property through the commercialization of several new technologies at mine sites around the world for organizations including Glencore, Jiangxi Copper, Freeport-McMoRan and the US EPA. BQE Water is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BQE. Visit www.bqewater.com for more information.
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SOURCE BQE Water Inc.
