Celebration Leases Crescent Silver Mine

Spokane-based Celebration Mining Co. has leased the Crescent Silver Mine near Kellogg, the company announced Wednesday.

Celebration has no immediate plans to develop the site, which is adjacent to the Sunshine Mine at Big Creek, Idaho, owned by Sunshine Mining & Refining Co.

The Crescent mine produced 25 million ounces of silver as part of the Bunker Hill Mining Co. complex. Idled since 1986, it employed about 60 miners when shut down.

Celebration will wait for better silver prices and study how to best use the mine, said Robert E. Jorgensen, senior vice president for the small mining company.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” he said. “We are very committed to seeing this happen in the long-term.”

Under an agreement with Fausett International, Celebration will pay Fausett royalties for any metals pulled from the Crescent.

Celebration owns mining properties in Australia, Utah and Montana. All three properties are under development, he said.

The privately held company has four employees and has been in business about a year and a half, he said.

The company will start to rehabilitate parts of the mine before the year is over, he said. The shafts have filled with water since the mine has been shut down, so Celebration will look at pumping the Crescent out.

“We think it’s a marvelous opportunity,” Jorgensen said.