Silver Valley: America's Most Prolific Silver District
What I Learned From Getting Boots On The Ground In Silver Valley
Summary
Some detective work on the shell companies with land packages next to the larger operations.
Why I sold America’s Gold & Silver after talking to a miner that worked there for three years. He laid out every issue that he saw, and why he moved over to the Lucky Friday.
Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine, and the perception that they aren’t working hard enough on their large land package.
The expected restart of the Bunker Hill Mine this year, and why it could be an acquisition target.
Thomas Kaplan’s (and Electrum Group) progress at the Sunshine Mine, the excitement around a restart in the next couple years, and why I would look for a potential IPO if you’re bullish on silver.
Meeting with Idaho Strategic Resources CEO, and how they are different from other companies in the area.
Over the Christmas break, I was doing some research into several companies in Silver Valley. I wasn’t just looking at big operations like America’s Gold & Silver USAS 0.00%↑, Hecla’s HL 0.00%↑ Lucky Friday mine, Bunker Hill, and the Sunshine Silver Mine & Refinery. While most of the research on the tiny companies with land packages in the area turned out to be a dead end, I learned a ton about the history of the area and what is going on today. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough snow to get a day or two on the slopes, but the trip did spark an idea that I’m working on. There’s going to be a local economic boom in the area over the next several years, and not just due to silver prices.
America’s Gold & Silver is planning to restart the Crescent Mine by the middle of this year, and Bunker Hill is gearing up to restart its zinc-silver-lead mine sometime in Q2 or Q3 as well. The Sunshine is a bit further out, but that one is the 800 pound gorilla in the Valley and hasn’t been fully operational since 2001. I was lucky enough to spend an hour chatting with technical services manager at the Sunshine, and I’m hoping Thomas Kaplan and the Electrum Group decide to IPO in the next couple years. There have been rumblings about an offering, but we will have to wait and see on that. The Sunshine is also the site of one of the worst mining disasters in US history, but almost everyone I talked to in the area is excited to see operations restart in the next year or two.
The first thing you notice just from driving around the area and talking to some of the locals is the history in the area. You can learn way more by visiting these places and companies in person than you can by reading investor presentations and financials online. That little 20 mile stretch of Silver Valley has produced well over a billion ounces of silver since 1880, along with plenty of gold, zinc, lead, copper, and antimony. There is a reason that silver majors like Hecla and Couer were born in Silver Valley, even if Couer decided to get rid of their assets in the area. The locals are still pissed about that twenty years later, but I got my first taste on the history of the area on Sunday at a local bar after the drive up. I also got to watch the Seahawks squeak out a close one against the Rams, so that was a bonus.
