ELKO - Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. Today announced the latest stack tests for mercury air emissions at the Jerritt Canyon Mine north of Elko show continued improvement.
According to Vancouver-based Yukon-Nevada, the fourth set of test on the new equipment show emissions are now at 6 percent of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection requirements.
Yukon-Nevada installed new mercury controls last year, and brought in third parties to testing the effectiveness of the new equipment.
"The company is enjoying this process, and we derive satisfaction from the constant improvements we see in all areas of the operation," said Chief Operating Officer Graham Dickson.
He designed and developed the technology for reducing mercury air emissions at the Jerritt Canyon Mine and oversaw the installation of the equipment that is now patent-pending.
NDEP specified allowable levels in a consent decree worked out with Yukon-Nevada subsidiary Queenstake Resources before the state would allow the mill to restart last fall.
Queenstake started the mill in the spring of 2009, but NDEP shut it down at the end of May because the company failed to install the mercury controls by the May 30 deadline.
The NDEP decree on mercury emissions states that Queenstake "shall not discharge or cause the discharge into the atmosphere from the exhaust stack of each ore roaster circuit, total mercury in excess of 0.000261 grain per dry standard cubic foot."
NDEP and Queenstake signed the decree to allow the Jerritt Canyon mill to start up again so Queenstake could process gold ore stockpiles that remained when Yukon-Nevada shut down the mine in August 2008.
Jerritt Canyon also has ore from its Smith underground mine to process. Small Mine Development reopened Smith in early February under contract with Queenstake.
By Adella Harding