Chester Mining Company (CHMN) was founded in Coeur d'Alene in 1900 to explore the Chester property, just east of the Sunshine Mine, in the heart of Idaho's world-famous Silver Valley. The property was later operated by Sunshine Mining & Refining and was most recently producing silver between 1961 through 1976. Chester paid shareholders a substantial dividend while its property was in production.

Today, a reinvigorated Chester Mining is a unique mineral exploration company with a strategy of acquiring properties in proven mining districts and leasing them out to generate an income stream while retaining speculative leverage to exploration success through royalty interests.

Conjecture Mine

The Conjecture property consists of approximately 240 acres and includes both patented and unpatented lode mining claims, located in the Lakeview Mining District of northern Idaho, roughly 30 miles northwest of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District.

Geologists have long noted similarities between the Precambrian belt series (i.e., Wallace, St. Regis, Revett) of the Lakeview District and those found in the world-class silver deposits of the Coeur d'Alene mining district, and the same important ore minerals (tetrahedrite, galena, sphalerite) define productive ore shoots in the Conjecture and the Coeur d'Alene District. Within the Lakeview District, only the Conjecture shaft has been driven deep enough to penetrate the less favorable Wallace formation into the better quartzite units.

Both the Lakeview District and the Conjecture Mine have a history of high grade silver production from shallow workings dating to the late 1800s, though production on neighboring properties occurred as recently as 1987.

The Conjecture Mine was discovered in 1895 and worked until the early 1920s, producing an unrecorded quantity of high grade silver ore from the Graham and Spider adit levels. It was further developed by an inclined shaft from the 100-foot to the 400-foot level and sporadically worked until the mid 1950s.

The Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology records 350 tons of concentrate processed at the Bunker Hill Smelter from 1952 to 1954, averaging approximately 91 oz/t silver, 0.14 oz/t gold and 4.5% lead.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Federal Resources invested approximately $3 million dollars to extend the inclined shaft to the 700-foot level, sank a 2000 foot vertical shaft, and developed the 700, 1000, 1600 and 2000-foot levels along 2500 feet of strike, totaling over 13,000 feet of workings.

Federal established a block of mineralized material of 336,000 tons grading nearly 12 opt silver and .02 opt gold, three percent zinc and 1/2 percent lead. Federal also listed an additional block of 370,000 tons of similar grade as a possible block of mineralization between the levels, or a total of more than 700,000 thousand tons of mineralized material.

Sunshine Mining unitized the Lakeview District during in the 1970s and conducted further exploration and development work, but did not produce any ore from Conjecture.

An independent reserve report, prepared by registered professional geologist Richard W. Morris in 1981, verified the earlier numbers for Minerals Management, inc., though this mineralized material does not currently constitute a proven or probable ore reserve.

High grade silver mineralization has been shown to extend laterally for over two miles, and vertically for over 3,000 feet in the Conjecture Mine.

The Conjecture Property is currently under lease to Shoshone Silver Mining Company.

North Idaho's prolific "Silver Valley" has been buzzing with excitement since Sterling Mining took control of the Sunshine Mine in June 2003. The Sunshine Mine is the richest silver mine in American history with more than 360 million ounces of production over the past century.

Chester owns two strategic claim groups in the immediate vicinity of the Sunshine: the Chester and Bismark propeties. Both claim groups have been leased to Sterling Mining Company. In addition, Chester owns 1/3 of the nearby Mineral Mountain Unitized Area, also under lease to Sterling.

The Chester Property

The Chester property consists of a 100-acre parcel, completely surrounded by the Sunshine Mine property and less than one mile east of its Jewell Shaft. Sterling has recently embarked upon a surface exploration program on portions of the Sunshine property near the Chester claims. Despite over a century of continuous operation, surface exploration at the Sunshine Mine has been limited because of its historical success at consistently delivering mineable reserves at the lower mine levels. Sterling geologists believe that this program could identify potential drill targets on any structures that trend onto the Chester property.

The Bismark Property

The Bismark property consists of a 75-acre parcel, adjacent to the Sunshine Mine property and roughly one mile south-southwest of its Jewell Shaft. The Bismark claims were developed by a 1500-foot access drift from the surface and include over 1,000 feet of lateral development along the Bismark Vein. Under the prior lease, Sunshine Mining & Refining drilled the property to explore the downward extension of the Bismark Vein. Although mineralized vein material was intersected, along with other veins and fault structures, detailed information regarding grade and thickness were not disclosed.

The Bismark Vein lies within the favorable Revett formation, host to a significant proportion of the historical silver mining in the Coeur d'Alene District. Furthermore, the Cate Fault, a controlling structure on the nearby Bunker Hill ore bodies, trends onto the Bismark Property.

Website: http://www.chestermining.com/