Boroo eyes potential Eagle gold mine buy in Yukon

Private investment holding company Boroo could be preparing to buy the former Eagle Mine site in Canada’s Yukon Territory, almost two years after a landslide forced its closure.

The firm has entered an exclusivity agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the receiver of Eagle’s former owner Victoria Gold, making it the sole party negotiating a potential purchase of the site and its assets, about 375 km north of Whitehorse.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much Boroo might pay for the asset or what the post-landslide production potential is of the Eagle site. The Northern Miner has requested further information from Boroo.

“Our team excels where others see limitations,” Boroo CEO Dulguun Erdenebaatar said in a release on Tuesday. “By combining deep technical expertise with the financial agility to act on troubled or undervalued assets, we are proving that responsible, innovative mining can unlock immense value for shareholders and host communities alike.”

Sale and cleanup

The potential deal with the Singapore-based Boroo comes almost one year after PwC put the mine site up for sale, with potential bids accepted until last December. PwC didn’t specify the price it would seek, though a PwC report from last year estimated the total value of Eagle’s assets at C$824.7 million ($600 million).

The sale was preceded by an extensive clean-up period at Eagle, where a landslide at the gold mine’s heap leach pad released millions of tonnes of ore and at least 280,000 cubic metres of cyanide-containing solution beyond containment on June 24, 2024.

Victoria Gold was put into receivership two months later. There were no significant injuries in the accident. The Yukon authorized PwC to spend C$220 million on the cleanup.

90-day period

Under the terms of the 90-day exclusivity deal, Boroo is to conduct further due diligence at Eagle and negotiate the terms of a sale with PwC, it said. It will also start discussions with the Yukon government and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) about agreements to allow the deal to proceed and mining operations to restart.

PwC shortlisted potential buyers last year and invited them to meet with Yukon government and FNNND representatives to discuss their plans for the mine, PwC said.

Based on those discussions and input from its financial adviser and the consent of the Yukon government, PwC then reached the exclusivity deal with Boroo last week.

Mine turnarounds

Known for turning around underperforming mining assets, Boroo acquired Barrick Mining’s (NYSE: B; TSX: ABX) Lagunas Note mine in Peru in 2021 for $81 million after it was put into care and maintenance. Boroo restarted gold production and invested in new processing methods at the mine.

An Independent Review Board (IRB) of the Eagle accident concluded last July that a lack of surveillance over the leach pad, poor drainage and too much pressure and weight caused the leach pad to collapse.