Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Mining District is a silver-producing district of long standing. Mining began in the early 1880's with the discovery of placer gold near Murray, Idaho. The first high grade silver lode deposits were discovered in 1884, and the rush was on.
The first discovery of high grade silver-lead veins at the Galena Mine came around 1887. William Clark developed the original mine, and operated it until 1916, when the Day family interest took over. In 1920 Callahan Mining took over and operated the property for silver-lead production until 1947, when they leased the property to ASARCO.
ASARCO deepened the shaft in pursuit of better host rocks for the high grade silver-lead veins of the mine. In 1953, they accidentally discovered the mighty tetrahedrite vein, which became known as the 'Silver Vein." The Silver Vein alone has produced over 100 million ounces of silver at an average grade of over 24 ounces per ton from 1953 to present, and with its discovery, ASARCO abandoned development of the silver-lead veins to focus on high grade silver-copper production.
In 1995, ASARCO formed a joint venture with Coeur d'Alene Mines, the owner of the Coeur Mine, called Silver Valley Resources. The JV operated the property until 1999, when ASARCO was forced into bankruptcy, and their interest was sold to Coeur d'Alene Mines.
The Galena Mine and Mill, along with the Coeur Mine and Mill and the Caladay Project, were acquired from Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp (NYSE-CDE) by US Silver on June 1, 2006.
The Company’s assets lie in the heart of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District, the most prolific silver district in United States history with over 1.2 billion ounces of silver production. Throughout the long history of the Company's properties, the mines have produced some 9.9 million tons of ore containing over 220 million ounces of silver, 161 million pounds of copper and 28 million pounds of lead at an average grade of 21.2 ounces per ton of silver, 0.8%copper and 8.8% lead. The Galena Mine ranks as the second largest primary silver mine in US history.