| |
MiningWeek Online
September 24, 2004 Volume 10, Issue 38
This Week's Issue:
Domenici headlines luncheon at NMA headquarters; Craig, Bond, Inhofe, Gorton also present
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Respurces Committee, headlined a luncheon at NMA honoring Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) this week. Nethercutt is running for the U.S. Senate in Washington state. Joining Domenici at the event were Sens. Larry Craig (R-ID), also a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Kit Bond (R-MO), who serves on the Environment and Public Works Committee, among others; Jim Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee; and former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA). NMA President and CEO Jack N. Gerard (far left) is shown with, from left-to-right, Craig, Nethercutt and Domenici.
Back to top
No Mining Week October 1
Mining Week will not be published Friday, Oct. 1, due to the involvement of NMA staff at MINExpo INTERNATIONAL® 2004 in Las Vegas, NV. A special edition of Mining Week, including an extensive report on MINExpo events and activities, will be published Friday, Oct. 8.
NMA will be publishing photos and updates from MINExpo® daily on its website, www.nma.org.
Back to top
NMA helps sponsor minerals briefing for Hill staff
NMA President Jack Gerard addresses the briefing audience.
NMA was the industry sponsor of a congressional briefing entitled “Digging a Little Deeper: Minerals Matter,” held last week at the Rayburn House Office Building. The briefing presented to staffers information on the USGS, the mineral potential, production, consumption and the environment and included as speakers Charles Groat, director of the U.S. Geological Survey; Patty Morrison, principal deputy assistant interior secretary for land and minerals management; and Dixon Tranum, senior economist, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System. NMA President and CEO Jack N. Gerard welcomed the group, stressing the important role that USGS plays in providing basic information about the minerals industry. This information will be even more important next year as we move to develop and implement a national minerals policy.
Also sponsoring the briefing with NMA were Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA) and Ron Kind (D-WI).
Back to top
EPA: Continuing emissions decline signals U.S. air quality is cleanest ever
Total emissions of the six principal pollutants identified in the Clean Air Act dropped again in 2003, “signaling that America’s air is the cleanest ever in three decades,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said this week.
“Emissions have continued to decrease even as our economy has increased more than 150 percent,” EPA said. “Since 1970, the aggregate total emissions for the six pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and lead have been cut from 301.5 million tons per year to 147.8 million tons per year, a decrease of 51 percent.” EPA added that total 2003 emissions were down 12 million tons since 2000, a 7.8 percent reduction.
The agency said a major reason for the progress is the market-based cap-and-trade acid rain program enacted in 1990. “The Acid Rain Progress Report shows annual SO2 and NOx emissions have declined 5.1 million tons (32 percent) and 2.5 million tons (37 percent), respectively, since 1990. The program generated double-digit cuts at its inception and is now maturing, with small fluctuations up and down as emissions gradually near their respective end goal caps.”
To see the full 2003 emissions report, visit www.epa.gov/airtrends/econ-emissions.html.
Back to top
Kennecott honors teacher as two-millionth visitor to Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah
A Utah school teacher was recently honored as the two millionth visitor to Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine in Copperton, Ut.
Mrs. Sunsuk Christiansen, a teacher at Granite Park Middle School, was aboard a school bus with two seventh-grade classes heading to the Bingham Canyon Mine Visitors Center when she was informed of the honor. She was presented with a special Kennecott hardhat as well as a cash award for school supplies and an ice cream party.
Ted Himebaugh, Bingham Canyon mine manager, said it seemed “very appropriate that a teacher should be our two-millionth visitor because one of our main objectives at the Visitor’s Center is to help educate our visitors about mining in general, and Kennecott Utah Copper in particular.”
Many mining operations around the country offer tours for schools and the public as part of their effort to keep the community informed about how a mine operates, environmental and safety efforts, and how the products of mining are used in daily living.
Back to top
Chairman Pombo visits NMA
House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo visited NMA headquarters this week. Pombo is a Republican from California's 11th District. Among other things, he discussed key issues before the Resources Committee and the outlook for 2005.
Back to top
Idaho mine receives state reclamation award
The Rasmussen Ridge Mine in southeastern Idaho, owned by Agrium CPO and operated by a unit of Washington Group International (WGI), recently received the 2004 Idaho Inter-Agency Reclamation Award from the Idaho Department of Lands.
The phosphate mine, located northeast of Soda Springs, ID, was honored for “Excellence in Ongoing Operations, Soft Rock Mines Over 75 Acres.”
Agrium CPO owns the leases, does the mine planning and permitting and directs the work at the 681-acre facility, which produces about 1.7 million tons of phosphate ore annually. The ore supplies Agrium’s fertilizer plant near Soda Springs.
Washington Group personnel are responsible for the removal of approximately 6-to-7 million cubic yards of waste rock annually. The waste rock is drilled, blasted and hauled to previously mined out pits. The waste dumps are contoured and shaped to resemble the surrounding terrain and encapsulated with a minimum of 10 feet of cap material. Topsoil is then placed on graded dumps at an average depth of two-to-three feet. Completed areas are seeded and fertilized each fall.
The end use of the mine, which sits primarily on U.S. Forest Service-administered land, is classified as multiple-use, the company said. To date, there are 681 mined acres, of which 214 have been reclaimed – 55 additional acres will be seeded and fertilized this fall.
Back to top
Final boiler MACT rule published by EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week published the final boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule, which the agency said is designed to reduce a number of toxic air pollutants (HAPs), including hydrogen chlorine, manganese, lead, arsenic and mercury.
The rule limits the amount of HAPs that may be emitted from all new (built after Jan. 13, 2003) and existing large and limited use solid fuel boilers and process heaters located at facilities considered to be major sources of HAPs (facilities emitting 10 tons per year of any single HAP, or 25 tons per year of any combination of HAPs).
The rule become effective Nov. 12, 2004. Existing boilers and process heaters must comply with the final rule no later than three years after that date; new units must comply when they are brought on line. New units have up to six months after the effective date, or six months after startup, whichever is later, to demonstrate compliance with the new standards.
A copy of the final rule is available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-11221.pdf.
Back to top
Newsbits
Newmont Mining Corp. and Compania de Minas Buenaventura announced that Minera Yanacocha has begun resuming normal mining operations at its mine north of Cajamarca, Peru, after an agreement was reached between the government, representatives from the Cajamarca community and Minera Yanacoha. Minera Yanacocha had scaled back mining operations earlier as the result of a blockade of the mine access road . . . . The University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center said Mark R. Maddox, acting assistant DOE secretary for fossil energy, and Sens. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have been invited to speak at the upcoming Western Fuels Symposium. The event is scheduled for Oct. 12-14 at the Holiday Inn Grand Montana in Billings – for more information, visit www.undeerc.org/wfs. . . . Pennsylvania Crusher Corp. has created an all new web site providing details on over a dozen different crusher models. The address is www.penncrusher.com . . . . the Ohio Coal Development Office will hold an open house to display a full-sized, coal-based Atmospheric Fluidized Bed Combustor on Nov. 5, 2004, from 9:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The open house will take place at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH. For more information, call 614-466-3465, or visit www.ohioairquality.org/ocdo/events/afbc.asp.
Back to top
|
