Many of the ore bodies that were initially mined for one commodity included other valuable base metals. Other metals that have been mined in Colorado include copper, tin, vanadium, iron, beryllium, lithium, thorium, tantalum, and manganese. producer of gold, silver, molybdenum, lead, zinc, uranium, and tungsten. Photo credit: Andreas Feininger.Īt various times throughout its history, Colorado has been the leading U.S. The Leadville, Colorado smelter of the American Smelting and Refining Company, December, 1942. In 1880, annual production increased to over 10 million ounces of silver and 66 million pounds of lead. Within two years, the population in Leadville went from 200 people in 1877 to a population of more than 15,000. In 1877, the ore deposits at Fryer Hill near Leadville were discovered, and the silver boom, considered one of the largest in the state, was on. As other deposits in the area were discovered around 1876, some with much higher concentrations of silver, closer new smelters including the lead-silver smelter at Georgetown were being constructed. Some of this lead carbonate contained silver however, the economics of the day made it difficult to ship this ore to far away smelters unless it contained an abundance of silver.

During the mining of placer gold, heavy blue-black sands, recognized by some as lead carbonate, caused issues with the placer mining. The peak of placer mining lasted from about 1860 to 1863 and declined through 1875. For example, as summarized from RS-42 Geology and Mineral Resources of Lake County, Colorado, when the gold rush expanded throughout Colorado, mining in the Leadville District began with the discovery of placer gold in California Gulch in the early 1860s. Many of the historical metal mining districts in Colorado were created during the initial gold rush of 1858-61 which lead to the discovery of other metals.

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