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Events/Disaster · 1972

Sunshine silver mine fire

Disaster, 1972-05-02, United States.

What happened

A fire at the Sunshine silver mine near Kellogg, Idaho on 2 May 1972 killed 91 men. MSHA lists it as the deadliest US metal and nonmetal mine disaster since 1940.1,2

Why it matters

The fire is the main modern US hard rock mine disaster.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Sunshine silver mine fire

    The fire is the main modern US hard rock mine disaster.1,2

  2. Silver price collapse after the Hunt silver squeeze

    It led to tighter position limits and a CFTC report to Congress in 1981.3,4

  3. City of Potosi inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.5

  4. Kutna Hora inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.6

  5. Sullivan mine closes

    MINFILE records Sullivan as a continuous producer from 1900 to its closure.7,8

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inBunker Hill Mine (Coeur d'Alene)A mine from the same area and mineral story: Bunker Hill Mine (Coeur d'Alene).1

Sources

  1. Fact Sheet 95-8: Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  2. Sunshine Mine (item Q7641530), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. History of the CFTC in the 1980s US Commodity Futures Trading Commission
  4. New York City (item Q60), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. City of Potosi added to List of World Heritage in Danger UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  6. Kutna Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  7. MINFILE summary: Sullivan (082FNE052) British Columbia Geological Survey
  8. Sullivan Mine (item Q7636415), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

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: South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); 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).