RENO, Nev. -- State environmental regulators have ordered a northeast Nevada gold mine to shut down because it failed to meet a deadline to install equipment to reduce mercury emissions.
The Jerritt Canyon Mine, about 50 miles north of Elko, was directed to cease operations by midnight May 30, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection confirmed Monday .
The Environmental Protection Division had issued an order in March 2008 requiring Queenstake Resources USA of Elko - a subsidiary of the Canada-based Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. - to install new emission control systems by the end of that year at the mine.
The initial order had followed a yearlong investigation into mercury emissions. Mercury is a toxic metal that can damage the brain and nervous system.
Queenstake voluntarily stopped mining and processing ore in August 2008, and cited financial reasons.
State regulators issued a new order in March of this year that allowed the company to restart processing if it complied with most of the state's environmental requirements and pledged to install the mercury control system by May 30 on the so-called "roasters" that are used to superheat the gold-bearing ore.
As part of that process, naturally occurring mercury in the rock is converted into toxic vapor, which becomes airborne.
Company officials notified the state that they would not meet the deadline because of a delay in fabricating fiberglass ductwork.
Greg Remer, chief of the Nevada Bureau of Air Pollution Control, said in a letter to Queenstake chief operating officer Graham Dixon that approval of the mine's startup was based on assurances that the May 30 deadline would be met.
"Queenstake has not yet demonstrated compliance with the mercury emission limit specified by the order," he said.
Before its closure last August, the mine employed about 400 workers.
Environmental Protection Division spokeswoman Jill Lufrano said the mine cannot reopen until the state-of-the-art emission controls are installed.
"As far as we know, there is no definite time line for that to be accomplished," Lufrano said.
Lufrano has said the new system will reduce mercury air emissions to 175 pounds per year from the 1,700 pounds reported in 2007.
Nicole Sanches, a spokeswoman for Yukon-Nevada Gold at its headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, said the company no longer was processing ore at Jerritt Canyon as a result of the state's order.
"Everything has been suspended at Jerritt Canyon," she told The Associated Press.
In April, Dixon said the company intended to produce roughly 2,000 ounces of gold a week for the next year, or roughly 90,000 ounces through the end of the year from 800,000 tons of stockpiled ore. Some of the ore is from Newmont Mining Corp.'s operations that Jerritt Canyon was under contract to mill.