The mine is located on the southeast slope of Sullivan Hill, 2 miles northwest of the center of the city of Kimberley. The concentrator is located at Chapman Creek, 2 miles southeast of the center of the city. The North Star mine is located about 2 miles south of the Sullivan, on North Star Hill.
Prospectors Pat Sullivan, John Cleaver, E.C. “Ed.” Smith, and Walter Burchett, of the Coeur d’Alene area of Idaho, were prospecting in the Kootenay Lake area in 1893 when they decided to band together for an overland trip to the Fort Steele area. On their arrival they heard stories of the impressive orebody of the North Star mine which had been discovered the previous year.
On reaching North Star Hill, they found all of the hill had been staked but decided to prospect in the vicinity. They crossed Mark Creek to prospect the other slope and soon found the outcrop of the Sullivan orebody. They located 3 claims, the Shylock, Hamlet, and Hope. One of the partners, Sullivan, was killed in the Coeur d’Alene district in the winter of 1892 but the remaining three continued work on their claims at intervals when finances permitted until 1896.
The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (Limited) acquired a lease and bond on the property in December 1909. Subsequent exploration work indicated a large tonnage of complex ore which would become valuable if a satisfactory process of concentration could be developed. Also, these were high-grade ore zones which could be worked during the interval and smelted for lead.
Many tests on various processes of separation were carried out until, at last, satisfactory lead and zinc concentrates were produced at Trail by differential flotation in 1920. This new process made it possible to separate the run-of-mine ore into high-grade lead and zinc concentrates, and pyrrhotite concentrate for future use. A concentrator based on this process was built at the Sullivan mine and commenced operating in 1923.
An open pit mining operation began in 1951 to recover the remaining ore in the outcrop and nearby areas, and for several years provided about 20% of total mine production. The pit operation was closed temporarily in May 1957 and not re-opened until 1964. During the latter year the remaining open pit ore was removed, providing about 7% of total production for that year.
The company name was changed in 1966 to Cominco Ltd. The property at that time included 678 Crown-granted claims and fractions and 30 recorded claims, and extended southerly to include the former Stemwinder and North Star mines. In 1975 the company began a modernization program to convert the mine to trackless mining methods.
From 1900 to 1974 inclusive 116,199,323 tons of ore were produced. From this ore 5,397 ounces of gold, 241,221,351 ounces of silver, 10,293,900 pounds of copper, 14,479,191,822 pounds of lead, 12,623,874,102 pounds of zinc, 5,178,052 pounds of cadmium, and 19,273,157 pounds of tin were recovered.
