Mine fined for errors in water testing

The Buckhorn Mine was fined $22,000 for reporting inaccurate test results for water discharged from the gold operation in Okanogan County. The mine is a subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corp. The mine’s permit requires the company to treat water from the mine before it’s discharged into the environment. The errors were in water samples collected from May to August 2009. To the mine operators’ credit, they caught the errors and notified state regulators, said Charlie McKinney, a Washington Department of Ecology water quality manager. The Buckhorn Mine has been in compliance with its permit since August 2009, according to Doug Jones, the mine’s vice president and general manager. Last year, the Buckhorn Mine was fined $40,000 for violating its water discharge permit.