MINING QUARTERLY SPRING 2012

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goal post is energy. We take in coal here and put out power.” The power plant employs 63 people, and “turnover has dropped to almost nothing,” he said. At a time when new mercury regulations are going into effect for coal-fired power plants, the TS Power Plant with its technology that was state of the art when the plant went into production in June 2008 isn’t likely to have the problems of older power plants. “The new regulations on mercury came out before Christmas. We still looking at them,” said Dennis Laybourn, environmental manager at the plant. O’Shields said the TS Power Plant already had mercury removal equipment in place because it is a newer plant, but the older coal-fired plants will have to spend millions of dollars in retrofitting projects. The TS Power Plant also has low CO2 emissions, called greenhouse gases. “We have some of the lowest emissions in the country,” Laybourn said, reporting that the plant began reporting CO2 and CO2-related gas emissions to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year under new regulations. The power plant also continues to

Matt Murray, left, senior external relations representative for Newmont Mining Corp., listens as Engineering Manager Kuda Mutama explains operations at Newmont’s coalfired TS Power Plant at Dunphy. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly

See POWER, 68

SPRING 2012 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 67


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