U.S. Silver plans restart of Coeur Mill, mine

U.S. Silver Corp. will spend $1.5 million this year to restart the Coeur Mill and explore for silver-lead ore in the adjoining Coeur Mine.

The mill should be running by August, said Mark Hartmann, company president. Activity in the mill and the mine, which has been closed since 1997, will result in about 15 new hires, he said.

U.S. Silver bought Coeur d’Alene Mines’ Silver Valley holdings last year, which include the closed Coeur complex, plus the Galena Mine and the Galena mill, which were operational.

The Galena Mine and mill currently employ about 140 people. In the past, the Galena’s focus has been on the extraction of silver-copper ore. But with rising lead prices, Hartmann said mining activity at the Galena is broadening to include more silver-lead ore.

Since the Galena’s mill specializes in processing silver-copper ore, the Coeur mill will focus on silver ore with high lead content. For the meantime, the Coeur mill will process ore from the Galena Mine, Hartmann said.

However, exploration activities at the Coeur Mine could lead to future evaluations of reopening that mine at some point, he said.