Colorado Miners Hoping For Silver Revival

IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — High silver prices have some Colorado miners hoping to revive the state's silver trade.

A few miners are working around the Poor Man silver mine in Idaho Springs. Silver prices are up, with futures in silver going up 27 percent just last month. Silver is now trading at about $15.60 an ounce.

The silver boom is caused by economic uncertainty and the fact that silver is used in solar panels. Some miners who lead tours of old Colorado gold mines say they're also poking around abandoned silver mines looking for new veins of silver.

The Denver Post reported Saturday that several people have filed applications with Colorado to explore or reactivate silver mines.

One of them is Al Mosch. His day job is leading gold-mine tours of the Phoenix Mine in Idaho Springs, but on his time off he pokes around the old silver site.

"I did some serious work in here in the 1980s when silver was at $12," Mosch said. "It crashed to $4 and stayed that way for many years. I just shut it down then."