Operations
Kensington Mine is an underground gold mine located in the Alaskan panhandle about 75 km northwest of Juneau, Alaska. The Kensington property consists of 14,000 acres of mineral claims held by Coeur Alaska,[18] a subsidiary of Coeur Mining. Mining in the Kensington region first took place in the late 1800s and early 1900s and has occurred intermittently since that time.[19] Coeur acquired 50% of the Kensington property in 1987 and then 100% in 1995. After considerable exploration work involving option agreements with a number of different companies and a court case that contested permits issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Kensington mine was finally put into Production on July 3, 2010.[19][2] The Kensington mine is an underground vein-style gold mine with several individual vein systems including the Kensington, Eureka, Raven, Elmira and Julian-Empire veins.[19] The mine uses the cut-and-fill or stope-and-fill underground mining method. In 2012, the mine produced 82,125 ounces of gold at a grade of 0.22 oz./ton and a total production cost of $18.65/oz. Reserves at the end of 2012 were just over 1 million ounces of gold.[2]
Rochester Mine is a heap-leach surface silver and gold mine located in the Humboldt Mountains near Lovelock, Nevada. The property consists of 9724 acres of mineral claims,[20] in the district of the historic mining town of Rochester, Nevada. Historic mining in the Rochester Mine area occurred from 1909 to 1935 and consisted of underground mining of high grade silver and gold veins. Coeur acquired the property in 1983 and restarted mining operations as a surface mine in 1986. Except for a three-year shut down from 2007 to 2010 due to low reserves and metal prices, the mine has operated continuously since re-opening.[20] The Rochester Mine produces ore from a conventional open pit operation, and from surface stockpiles of ore. The ore is processed using cyanide heap-leaching to produce silver-gold bars. In 2012 the mine produced 2.8 million ounces of silver and 38,066 ounces of gold at a grade of 0.55 oz./ton silver and 0.0047 oz./ton gold and at a total production cost of $14.05 per ounce of silver. Reserves at the end of 2012 were 44.9 million ounces of silver and 308,000 ounces of gold.[2]
Palmarejo Mine is a surface and underground gold and silver mine located about 420 kilometers by road southwest of the city of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico.[21] The property consists of over 12,000 hectares of mineral claims encompassing several silver and gold veins systems. Small-scale underground mining for silver veins in the Palmarejo area has occurred intermittently since the early 1800s.[22] Coeur acquired the property in 2007 and mining commenced in 2008.[21] The Pamerejo mine produces ore from surface and underground operations that target a number of silver-gold vein systems. The ore is processed using flotation and cyanide leaching to produce silver-gold bars.[21] In 2012, the mine produced 8.2 million ounces of silver and 106,038 ounces of gold at a grade of 4.7 oz./ton silver and 0.05 oz./ton gold and at a total production cost of $19.26/oz. of silver. Reserves at the end of 2012 were 5.3 million ounces of silver and 665,000 ounces of gold.[2]
San Bartolomé mine is a surface silver mine located near the historic mining city of Potosi, Bolivia; a world heritage site.[23] Mining of silver and silver-tin veins from Cerro Rico, a volcanic mountain adjacent to Potosi, began in the mid 1500s and has been continuous for over 450 years. In the 1650s, Potosi was the largest city in the western hemisphere with 160,000 residents.[24] Today, up to 15,000 people make a living mining small underground silver-tin veins. The property consists of approximately 4,800 hectares of surface mineral claims that encompass gravel deposits or silver-bearing rock along the flank of Cerro Rico.[24] Coeur acquired the San Bartolome property in 1999 and began current mining operations in 2008. The San Bartolomé Mine involves free digging of mineralized gravels along the flanks of Cerro Rico. This material is processed in a conventional cyanide leaching operation using the Merrill–Crowe process.[24] In 2012, the mine produced 5.9 million ounces of silver at a grade of 4.49 oz./ton and at a total operating cost of $15.81/oz. At the end of 2012 reserves are at 109 million ounces of silver.[2]
Wharf Mine is an open pit, heap leach gold operation located in the northern Black Hills of western South Dakota. The property consists of several areas of gold mineralization, which have been mined as a series of open pits. The Wharf mine is located approximately four miles southwest of Lead, South Dakota, and is the only known mining operation to share a hillside with a ski hill, Terry Peak ski resort. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and the first claims were staked over the current-day Wharf mine in 1877. Through the decades, exploration continued as did ownership of the area mines. In 1984, through the merger of Wharf Ltd. and Wharf USA, Inc., Coeur Mining became the sole owner of Coeur Wharf. Today, Coeur Wharf remains the only operating gold mine in South Dakota. Coeur Wharf employs approximately 260 mining professionals of which approximately 98% live in the Black Hills. The Wharf mine has been in operation since 1982 and represents 24% of Coeur's gold production (2022). In January 2022, the Lawrence County Commission approved Coeur Wharf's Conditional Use Permit application, also known as the Boston Expansion. This approval, which is one of the two needed, the other being the State Mine Permit approval, allows for an expansion of Coeur's mining operations by 48.7 acres and potentially extends the mine life for one to three years. Coeur continues to work with State-level regulatory authorities to secure the other requisite authorizations which is anticipated in the second half of 2023.[25]
