The Behre Dolbear report is considered historic in nature and illustrates the resource potential of the Sunshine Mine.

[4] In September of that year two brothers, True and Dennis Blake, filed claim on a series of ore deposits in the Big Creek mining district in Shoshone County, Idaho.

In the fall of 1876, for reasons unspecified in extant sources, the Blake Brothers began their westward migration.

According to court records, the Blake Brothers were living in Snohomish County, Washington Territory, by October 1878.

Sometime after November 1879 the brothers relocated to the eastern part of the territory, settling in the small city of Spokane Falls.

[5] By early 1880 the Blakes had relocated to the Coeur d'Alene Valley in Idaho, where they homesteaded at the mouth of a stream named Big Creek; located midway between the present cities of Kellogg and Wallace.

[6] It was these deposits, namely the Yankee Lode mining claim, that the Blake brothers staked in late September 1884.

[7] The two brothers mined their claim for the next two decades until poor health persuaded them to release control of the property to other interests.

[8] The property went through a series of acquisitions in the years following, being leased and managed at various times by men such as Sidney Shonts and next Dan Price.

Price, President of the Big Creek Leasing Company, spent a large sum of money in an effort to reach ore reserves on the lower levels of the Blake Brothers previous workings.

Tousley, in turn, recruited John Sawbridge, a Yakima, Washington businessman and mining entrepreneur.

Soon after the concentrator was commissioned, the Sunshine tunnel was dug from the surface in an exploration effort that discovered higher quality ore historically identified as "Chinatown".

In 1943 a crew drifting east on the 2700 level following the Silver Syndicate fault discovered the famous Chester vein.

After the Sunshine Mine reopened and resumed full production, it regained its position as the number one silver producer in the Nation.

10 shaft and the remnants of the Sunshine and Rambo vein stopes, referred to as the Footwall area on the 3700 and 3400 levels.

By 1975 they used Great Western, which they bought the previous year, to buy up commodities; the company had 21 million ounces of contracts by mid-1976.

Great Western sued on the grounds that the state law placed an undue burden on interstate commerce and pre-empted the Williams Act.

The Idaho law court case was also discarded on its merits, allowing Great Western to acquire the Sunshine Mining Company.

[29] The Hunts lost their majority shareholder status in 1979 when part of the deal fell apart, and Sunshine sold their interest back to the mine.

Changing exchange rules by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (and a change in margin rules from Paul Volcker in the SEC) meant the Hunts were caught out on margin calls, leading to the bankruptcy of their empire.

By late 1996 it was clear the ore body was of sufficient size and value to support the mine's return to full production.

By July 1997, the mine workings below the 4000 level were salvaged of all usable equipment and materials and allowed to begin filling with water.

The ConSil underground mine workings are primarily accessed by an adit to an internal 5600 feet shaft.

These included low silver prices and the lack of regular and consistent exploration and development due to prior management shifting cash flow from the mine to corporate expenses, debt and other projects.

Upon closing of the mine these 'Historic' or 'Legacy reserves' were reclassified to 'mineralized material' as required by United States Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.

It is based in New York as part of the Electrum Group of Companies, an international investor in precious metal mines.

On February 14, 2012, the mine was evacuated after a sensor in a vent shaft detected elevated levels of carbon monoxide inside.

All were workers for an underground mining services contractor called The Redpath Group, with headquarters in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

The Coeur D'Alene District is hosted by rocks of the Pre-Cambrian Belt Supergroup, exceeding 20,000 feet in thickness.

Ore deposits occur along veins within the northern limb of this anticline, with an E-W strike and dipping steeply to the south.