By Ken Miller
The Idaho Statesman

They don't call it the Silver Valley for nothing. The Coeur d'Alene Basin has for the past century been the richest source of silver on Earth.

"It's what we call a world-class district," said Idaho State Geologist Earl Bennett, who is also dean of the University of Idaho College of Mines and Earth Resources. "The Coeur d'Alene District has the largest recorded silver production of any district in the world. We know exactly how much has been produced in the district -- over 1 billion ounces."

Since 1884, when serious mining began in this valley, not only has all that silver been hauled out, but so have 8.5 million tons of lead, 3 million tons of zinc, and thousands of pounds of antimony, cadmium, copper, and gold. More than $5 billion in minerals have come from the Coeur d'Alene Basin, home of the world's deepest mine, the largest underground mine, and the richest silver-producing mine.

The mines generated the lead and zinc that kept the Allied forces armed during World War II.

In 1945, the War Production Board mounted a major expansion of lead production from the Coeur d'Alene District, seeking more than 2,500 tons of refined lead per month from the region's mines.

Here at the Lucky Friday Mine, Tom Fudge held a big chunk of ore that came from well over a mile deep. Last year, the Lucky Friday, which Fudge manages for Hecla Mining Co., produced 655 ounces of gold, 4.4 million ounces of silver, nearly 28,000 tons of lead and 3,000 tons of zinc. Most of the silver is used in film, jewelry, and tableware. Most of the lead is used in automotive batteries.

"This was the third claim staked in the Coeur d'Alene District," Fudge said. In the bad old days, much of the wastes from this mine and the scores of others in the valley were flushed into the streams that flow into the Coeur d'Alene River system. Today, Fudge said, his mine returns the water into the same system at a purity rate of about 99.996 percent.

Fudge acknowledged he and others in the industry are occasionally asked if they're in denial about the industry's impacts on the local environment and the health of local residents.

"We need to ask ourselves that," he said. Still, he denied generations of lead contamination have affected the physical and mental development of the basin's children, adding: "We're not trying to say there are absolutely no issues here, but there's nothing we care more about than our children and their health.

"But we also don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Mining is still a viable industry in the valley. It accounts for 60 percent of the economic activity in this county."