Nevada authorities have ordered a Northern Nevada gold mine to repair leaking equipment used to capture mercury or face immediate shutdown of its ore-processing facility.
The enforcement action, announced Thursday against the Jerritt Canyon mine 50 miles north of Elko, is the first taken under state regulations adopted last year to control mercury emissions from precious metal mines.
"The new mercury control regulations have significantly improved our ability to identify and address instances in which mercury emissions are not being appropriately controlled," said Michael Elges, chief of air pollution control for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.
The problem at Jerritt Canyon involves leaks in the mine's ore-processing system that prevent mercury-containing dust from reaching pollution-control
devices. The flaw was discovered by state inspectors in October and followed other problems that previously were noticed at the mine's milling and ore-
roasting operations, officials said.
The state ordered the mine's owner, Denver-based Queenstake Resources Ltd., to submit a plan to fix all leaks by
April 1 and to identify total mercury emissions from all ore drying and roasting units.
Until repairs are made to the state's satisfaction, employees working near ore-drying facilities will be required to use protective respirators. Failure to comply with the state's order could result in fines of up to $10,000 per day for each of an as-yet undetermined number of violations.
In a statement Thursday, Queenstake Resources said it "takes very seriously" the issues raised by the state. The company is spending $500,000 this year as part of an ongoing effort to control fugitive emissions at the mine's mill and is planning an emissions study by an independent contractor, the statement said.
"The health and safety of our employees and our communities is paramount in our operations," the statement said. "We welcome NDEP's oversight and evaluation of this situation, and are confident that we will quickly resolve these issues."
The NDEP adopted its mercury control program in March when critics from the neighboring states of Utah and Idaho complained Nevada gold mines were discharging clouds of toxic mercury across state lines, imperiling residents there. Mercury, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children and developing fetuses, is released into the atmosphere during roasting and other refining operations used to extract gold from ore.
At the time of the program's adoption, NDEP officials described its program as the first of its kind in the world. It requires all mines that release significant amounts of mercury to install scrubbers and other technology to control smokestack emissions.
Dan Randolph of Great Basin Mine Watch, an environmental watchdog group, praised the state for enforcing its new regulations but said the rules still are not strong enough. The group is pushing for more stringent regulations regarding mercury emissions from mines.
"We do think the regulations they have to enforce are not strong enough and need to be changed," Randolph said.
Russ Fields, executive director of the Nevada Mining Association, said the state's actions regarding the Jerritt Canyon mine prove the regulations are working.
"When something goes wrong at a facility, it falls subject to the regulations, and the state needs to do what the state needs to do," Fields said. "(Queenstake Resources) needs to address the problem. I'm sure they're going to do just that."
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