Bunker Hill mine restarts, raising pollution concerns for Lake Coeur d'Alene

The original Bunker Hill operation shut down in 1981 after building one of the most productive mining complexes in the West. Bunker Hill Mining Corp. says the historic mine yielded more than 165 million ounces of silver and 4.5 million tons of base metals before closure, and the new processing facility is built to handle 1,800 tons a day. Bunker Hill Mining says the operation employs more than 200 local staff, even as the 1981 shutdown erased about 2,000 local jobs.

The Bunker Hill / Coeur d’Alene Basin Superfund Site stretches across northern Idaho and eastern Washington, covering about 166 river miles and roughly 1,500 square miles. Mining and milling began in the 1880s, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed the basin on the National Priorities List in 1983 after finding high metal contamination and elevated blood lead levels in local children. The historic smelter in Kellogg operated from 1917 to 1981, and decades of atmospheric emissions spread lead and other heavy metals through residential soils and across the basin.