Mining has been a part of Colorado since it became a state in 1876, as evidenced by the ever-present Colorado Mining Association. Everyone has heard of the gold rushes of California, but few Coloradans know of the gold rushes of their own state.
In 1859, prospectors from Georgia on their way to California were stopped around what is now Denver. While staying there for the autumn season, they discovered gold deposits near Cherry Creek, Colo. Deposits also were found in Blackhawk and Central City soon after that.
What is known as Colorado's gambling town today seemingly always has been a "cash cow" of sorts. The largest gold lode ever discovered in Colorado was in Cripple Creek, back in 1893. As of December 2008, the Cripple Creek district alone produced in excess of 22 million ounces (687.5 tons) of gold, and the district holds the only remaining gold mine in Colorado, which produces an annual average of 7.5 tons of gold.
While prospecting for gold, miners in Leadville kept finding silver ore in their pans, which was initially disregarded, but eventually led to the foundation of Leadville, Gilman and Kokomo districts. Those districts reportedly produced nearly 2 million tons of zinc, more than a million tons of lead, more than 10,000 tons of silver and more than 100 tons of gold through 1998. The Black Cloud Mine--the last operational mine in the district--closed in 1999.
In 1879, miners in Fremont Pass (north of Leadville) found what the Colorado Geological Survey (CGS) describes as "a strange greasy metal" called molybdenum. While miners in 1879 disregarded it as useless, it was used during World War I to harden steel. As of 2008, the Henderson Mine still produces molybdenum.
A common deposit found in the 1950s in Colorado was uranium. A prominent uranium mine was the Schwartzwalder Mine, between Golden and Boulder. According to the CGS, the mine produced 250 tons of uranium oxide each year until it closed nearly 10 years ago.
Diamonds were discovered in Colorado in 1975, but one of the most prominent diamond mines--the Kelsey Lake Mine in Larimer County--didn't open until 1996. Since then, it has produced diamonds as large as 26 carats. Rock materials are in demand, and Colorado has plenty. Marble from Colorado's Yule Quarry was used in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. Today, Colorado's mining industry is still working well, especially in the coal industry, where Colorado ranks No. 11 out of the 30 coal-producing states.
