Miracle On Big Creek
Wallace, Idaho – Christmas arrived five days ahead of schedule for the Silver Valley and Sterling Mining Co., with the Dec. 20 departure of the first load of silver concentrates from the legendary Sunshine Mine and a return to production for the world's premiere primary silver mine.
This first shipment of just under 300 tons, refined from development ore, wasn't much in terms of metrics. A bit of a test batch to seat the pumps and sumps, to tweak the recovery rates. Resumption of actual commercial-grade silver production cannot happen under federal mine safety rules until the Consolidated-Silver shaft – which is Sunshine's secondary escape-way should something happen to its primary Jewell Shaft, is fully plumbed to its bottom at the 3,100-foot level. They're 100 feet from their goal and should be ready by the time you read this.
Which means the next batch to run through that grand 1,000 ton-per-day mill – later this week or early next – will be derived from stopes of commercial-grade ore in the production sections of the mine grading 26 ounces or better at the face; real silver ore, whether the price is $6.50 or $12 (or $50?) per ounce. The Sunshine will, next year, produce at minimum well in excess of 2 million ounces; by decade's end the Sunshine Mine will be back up to her old self again, unless silver drops below, say, $5 an ounce in current dollars. A fairly safe bet, we'd say.
Thursday morning's 7 a.m. departure of that first batch of cons aboard a Zanetti Brothers truck bound for the Cominco smelter at Trail, B.C., was nothing short of a human and technological miracle. It was a kick in the ass to watch in the gathering light of the Big Creek winter; the hand-shakes, the high-fives, the perma-grins from the crews, the “I knew we could do it” spirit. The Sunshine has been returned to life by sheer talent, expertise, and will.
Our Better Half had been assigned to photograph this historic event; we were along, as a journalist always is, just for the ride. Varying weather patterns ranging from rain to slush to snow – typical Silver Valley weather this time of year – accompanied our 15-minute drive from our home in Wallace to the Sunshine Mine complex up Big Creek. A suspected pair of deer eyeballs peered out of the dark as we rode up the canyon. The wipers slapped.
Thankfully for silver and the Silver Valley, Sterling's shareholders stood 100-to1 behind their president, DeMotte, when some renegade punks
wanted to make themselves temporarily rich by hi-jacking the mine and eking out a little high-grade production for the sake of a press release, Vancouver-style, as opposed to spending shareholders' money on jumbos, on drills, on transformers and upon badly needed ramps and drifts and equipment that might ensure another 100 years' silver production out of the old girl.
But this is a time for vindication of the righteous, not vilification of the greedy and just plain dumb. It is a time to be gracious. It is a time to feel good: a time for reconciliation. It is a time to celebrate. Sunshine, that magical treasure, is returning to her rightful place in the sun.
Ray DeMotte is quite right to assign credit for Sunshine's return to production, and the fact that 120 fine men and women are again at work at Sunshine, to his mine manager, Mike McLean, who, in turn, would insist it was the work of his people that made this miracle happen. A culture established by Sterling at Sunshine is that nobody gets hired unless the crew he or she is going to be working with approves. Makes for a pretty tough, family operation.
DeMotte comes from an English coal-mining background, and knows first-hand what devastation a mine closure can bring. At our first meeting back in May of 2003, shortly after he and Sterling arrived on the scene, sharing a cigarette on the front stoop of his tiny office in Coeur d'Alene, DeMotte was adamant that if he could pull this thing off, it would be for the long haul. “There is no way I am going to preside over a mine closure. I will not reopen the Sunshine unless and until I am positive it will remain open.”
Long-term thinking like that is rare, even in the mining business.
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When Sunshine Precious Metals Inc. shipped Sunshine's last concentrates in 2002 and filed for bankruptcy, most here were convinced it was absolutely the end of the line. “Out of reserves”; “high-cost producer”; “intractable labour force” were the phrases used here and on Wall Street. But the problem was never the mine: It was always the mining company. That so many of the new Sunshine's workforce, including manager McLean, mill superintendent John Ackerman, and dozens of miners and technicians, are guys who worked there before, underscores that point.
We wish the very best to Sterling and the Sunshine crew. You brought us a nice and early Christmas present, folks. And with 200 million ounces in Sunshine's holds, you should be around for many a Christmas to come.