Silver mining in the United States
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858.
[9] The Cerro Gordo Mines in Inyo County started producing lead and silver in 1860.
[10] Silver was discovered at Calico in San Bernardino County in 1881, and mining was prosecuted strongly there until 1896.
[11] Silver was discovered in 1919 in the eastern Rand district, near Randsburg and Johannesburg, in San Bernardino County.
The Kelly Rand mine produced silver from miargyrite and pyrargyrite ores from 1919 to 1928.
The largest current source of silver in Colorado is as a byproduct of gold mining at the Cripple Creek & Victor mine, a large open-pit heap leach operation owned by AngloGold Ashanti at Victor, Colorado.
Through 2006, the Coeur d’Alene district has produced a total of more than 37,000 metric tons (1.2 billion ounces) of silver.
[17] Butte, Montana is historically the second-greatest source of silver in the United States, second only to the Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho.
Butte flourished as a silver-mining district until miners tunneled into large copper veins in 1882.
Minerals in the silver-ore veins include polybasite, pyrargyrite, proustite, sphalerite, galena, and tennantite.
Manganese occurs as replacement bodies of pyrolusite and rhodochrosite in limestone adjacent to the fracture zones.
[21] The discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1858 inaugurated large-scale silver mining in the United States.
Nevada produces a larger amount of silver, 6,744,703 ounces in 2014, as a byproduct of the mining of gold.
Ore was extracted from underground workings until 1915, when a small open pit was dug.
[25] A rancher found the Lake Valley silver deposits in Sierra County in 1876.
The mines, promoted by Whitaker Wright, produced well for a few years after miners tunneled into a silver-lined cavity they named the "bridal chamber" that alone yielded 2.5 million troy ounces (78 metric tons) of silver.
But no more bridal chambers were discovered, the mines struggled and were worked periodically into the 20th century.
[26] Total production of the Lake Valley district through 1931 was 5.8 million ounces (180 metric tons) of silver.
[30] The Pequea silver mine near Conestoga in Lancaster County was worked from before the Revolutionary War to 1875.
Total production to 1999 was 35 million troy ounces (1090 metric tons) of silver, along with some gold.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad spurred prospecting in Utah, and led to major silver discoveries.
The first mining claim in the Park City district was staked in 1868, and the first ore shipment made in 1871.
