Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.61] on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 23:54:08 :
In Reply to: What is the product these mines are digging for...ntxt posted by Paul(in NY) [12.64.146.121] on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 23:26:39 :
This particular mine, the famous Sunshine, has been idle for probably 20 years now, but still has lots of reserves. Mr. Kaplan is apparently waiting for the US dollar to collapse and the price of silver to jump. Back in its day, it had the highest silver content of any mine in the area. The main operating mine today, Hecla's Lucky Friday, produces a mix with all three metals being significant. The way they do the accounting, they credit the lead and zinc against the silver and come up with a very low cost of production of the silver. Then the margin on the silver becomes the profit of the mine. There are trace amounts of gold and copper, but these are basically silver mines. Historically, out of the whole Coeur d'Alene mining district, there was actually more dollar value in lead taken out than in silver, mostly by the Bunker Hill, but I think silver production alone was over 100 million ounces.
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