Editing Leadville, Colorado (section)

===Mining and smelting===
{{Leadville mining}}
[[File:Gold-d06-206a.jpg|thumb|upright|Crystalline [[gold]] specimen from the Little Johnny Mine, Breece Hill, [[Leadville mining district]]]]

Mining in the Leadville area began in 1859 when prospectors discovered gold at the mouth of [[California Gulch]]. By 1872, placer mining in California Gulch yielded more than $2,500,000, roughly {{inflation|US|2500000|1872|r=-6|fmt=eq}}.{{inflation-fn|US}} In 1876, [[black sand]], once considered bothersome to placer gold miners, was discovered to contain lead carbonates, leading to a rush of miners to the area and the founding of the town in 1877. By 1880, Leadville was one of the world's largest and richest silver camps, with a population of more than 15,000. Income from more than thirty mines and ten large [[smelting]] works produced gold, silver, and lead amounting to $15,000,000 annually. The Leadville strike of 1880 was the first major labor conflict in the central Colorado silver boomtown, shutting down most of the area’s mining district from May 26, 1880.<ref name="Blair 1995"/>

According to one historian of the era, "The outpouring of the precious metal from Leadville transformed the struggling Centennial State into a veritable autocrat in the colony of states. As if by magic the rough frontier town of Denver became a metropolis; stately buildings arose on the site of shanties; crystal streams flowed through the arid plains and the desert blossomed and became fruitful. Poverty gave way to the annoyance of wealth and the fame of silver state spread throughout the world."<ref>Conant, p.106</ref>

Swindles were not uncommon in the mining community. When the Little Pittsburg mine was exhausted of its rich ore body, its managers sold their shares while concealing the mine's actual condition from the other stockholders. "Chicken Bill" Lovell dumped a wheelbarrow load of silver-rich ore into a barren pit on his Chrysolite claim in order to sell it to Horace Tabor for a large price. Tabor had the last laugh when his miners dug a few feet farther and discovered a rich ore body. Some time later the manager of the Chrysolite mine fooled an outside mining engineer into overestimating the mine's ore reserves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.miningswindles.com/html/leadville.html |title=Leadville |website=www.miningswindles.com |access-date=April 28, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622214901/http://www.miningswindles.com/html/leadville.html |archive-date=June 22, 2017 }}</ref>

The city's fortunes declined with the repeal of the [[Sherman Silver Purchase Act]] in 1893, although afterwards there was another small gold boom. Mining companies came to rely increasingly on income from the [[lead]] and [[zinc]]. The district is credited with producing over 2.9 million troy ounces of gold, 240 million troy ounces of [[silver]], 1 million short tons of lead, 785 thousand short tons of zinc (discovered in 1911<ref name="Buys 2007"/>), and 53 thousand short tons of copper.<ref>Ogden Tweto (1968), "Leadville district, Colorado", in ''Ore Deposits in the United States 1933/1967'', New York: American Institute of Mining Engineers, p.683.</ref>

A bitter [[Leadville miners' strike|strike by Leadville's hard rock miners]] in 1896–97 led to bloodshed, at least five deaths, and the burning of the Coronado Mine. In a letter to a London business contact, mine owner [[Eben Smith]] wrote, "The strikers got the worst of it in the raid on the Coronado and Emmet [mines], there were 10 or 12 killed; we do not know how many, and a great number wounded; they take care of their wounded the same as the Indians but every now and then a fellow turns up that the rats have been eating or who has gone to decay that we know must have been shot ..."<ref>William Philpott, "The Lessons of Leadville", Colorado Historical Society, 1995, pages 4, 106.</ref>

World War II caused an increase in the demand for [[molybdenum]], used to harden steel. It was mined at the nearby [[Climax mine]], which at one time produced 75 percent of the world's output. By 1980, the Climax Mine was the largest underground mine in the world. Taxes paid by the mine provided Leadville with good schools and libraries and provided employment for many residents. When the market dropped in 1981, Leadville's economy suffered and many people lost their jobs. With little industry other than the tourist trade, most of the former miners left, and the standard of living declined. Climax reopened in 2008 and started production in 2010. It currently is the most efficient mine producing molybdenum in Colorado and is estimated to have a production life of thirty years.<ref name="Colorado Central Magazine1">{{cite web | url=http://cozine.com/2006-june/restarting-climax-the-who-when-and-why/ | title=Restarting Climax: The who, when, and why | date=June 2006 | access-date=July 26, 2014 | author=Voynick, Steve | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808071817/http://cozine.com/2006-june/restarting-climax-the-who-when-and-why/ | archive-date=August 8, 2014 }}</ref>

The many years of mining left behind substantial contamination of the soil and water and the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] designated some former mines [[Superfund]] sites, such as [[California Gulch]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/dsp_ssppSiteData1.cfm?id=0801478 |title=Superfund Site Profile &#124; Superfund Site Information &#124; US EPA |access-date=July 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813233923/https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/dsp_ssppSiteData1.cfm?id=0801478 |archive-date=August 13, 2016 }}</ref>  As of 2019, the EPA reports:  "A vast majority of the cleanup at the site has been completed, so current risk of exposure is low. Pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children are still encouraged to have their blood-lead levels checked."[https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/dsp_ssppSiteData2.cfm?id=0801478#Risk]