Oil spill cleaned up at Agnico Eagle mine near Rankin Inlet

Agnico Eagle says30,000 litres of oil that spilled from a storage tank at its mine near Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, has been cleaned up.

The spill happened on April 8 at theMeliadine gold mine and was caught when crews noticed discoloured snow near a 100,000 litre storage tank.Fuel was leaking from a hose attached to the tank.

• 30,000 litres of fuel spilled at Agnico Eagle facility near Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
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Clean up was delayed due to blizzard conditions, but a news release from the company says it'snow been completed.

The contaminated material has been excavated and moved into storage, and the company said soil samples have been sent for third-party analysis to confirm the area is free of hydrocarbons.

Agnicosays no fresh water was affected.

The spill was determined to be the result of a faulty safety valve in the storage tank andemployees who were not properly trained.

As a result, the news release saysoperating procedures have been changed and training is ongoing.

The tank has been replaced with a top-discharge tank, and fuel tanks similar to the defective one have been taken out of daily operation.

Agnico Eagle says it will continue to monitor the soil in the affected area and is developing a plan to treat the material it removed.