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Events/Rush · 1903

Cobalt silver rush

Rush, summer 1903, Canada.

What happened

Silver was found on the shores of Cobalt Lake in the summer of 1903. Within a few years Cobalt was one of the largest silver producers in the world, with 333 million ounces (more than 10,000 t) from 100 mines by 1922.1,2

Why it matters

Ontario calls Cobalt the cradle of Canadian mining.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Schieffelin finds silver at Tombstone

    The NPS file says Tombstone became the largest town in Arizona Territory.3,4

  2. Leadville silver boom

    Leadville shows how fast a silver camp could outgrow a state capital.5,6

  3. Charles Rasp finds the Broken Hill orebody

    The orebody supported the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mining district and led to BHP.7,8

  4. Broken Hill Proprietary Company formed

    BHP grew from this mine into one of the largest mining companies in the world.7,8

  5. Antofagasta railway reaches Oruro

    The line to the Pacific cut costs of sending Bolivian ore to Europe.9,10,11

  6. South Broken Hill silver mine airblast

    The regulator uses it as a case study of ground failure at Broken Hill.8,12

  7. Broken Hill South Mine rock fall

    The regulator uses it as a case study of ground failure at Broken Hill.8,13

  8. Broken Hill Central Mine falls of earth

    The regulator ties the deaths to creep caused by shrinkage of mullock fill.8,14

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Where next

Mines

Located inCobalt silver campSilver was found on the shores of Cobalt Lake in the summer of 1903.1

Places

Located inCobaltOntario calls Cobalt the cradle of Canadian mining.1

Sources

  1. Heritage Silver Trail, Cobalt (road tour PDF) Government of Ontario
  2. Cobalt (item Q2568572), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Tombstone Historic District, National Historic Landmark nomination US National Park Service
  4. Tombstone (item Q79873), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. Leadville Colorado Encyclopedia
  6. Leadville (item Q286702), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. History of Broken Hill Broken Hill City Council
  8. Broken Hill (item Q270734), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. Correa Vera L., Del poder a los tratados: desarrollo y ferrocarriles en Bolivia, 1870-1904 Historia 46(2) (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, via Redalyc)
  10. Hillman J., The Emergence of the Tin Industry in Bolivia Journal of Latin American Studies 16(2) (Cambridge University Press)
  11. Wikidata item Q35246 (Oruro)
  12. 1895 South Broken Hill Silver Mine case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  13. 1901 Broken Hill South Mine case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  14. 1902 Broken Hill Central Mine case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0).