The Triumph Mine
Location: The Triumph Mine site is located in the community of Triumph, in Blaine County, east of Highway 75 between Hailey and Ketchum.
History: Rich strikes in 1879 led to a rush to the lead-silver mines of this valley. Mining quickly brought a railroad and prosperity. Hailey had Idaho’s earliest phone service (1883) and three daily newspapers. A Ketchum smelter pioneered electric lighting in Idaho. The Triumph Mine produced more ore than all other mines in the Warm Springs Mining District combined.
From 1882 to 1957, the Triumph Mine produced ore that was rich in silver, zinc, and lead. The ore was processed by crushing, grinding, and floatation to produce an ore concentrate. The materials remaining from processing, floatation tailings, were pumped as a slurry to two tailings piles which can still be seen today. At the time the mine closed in 1957, 110 men were employed. Today, the population of Triumph is 49.
Interesting points: The site is being cleaned up under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Quality to avoid federal listing as a superfund cleanup site. The site consists of two large tailings piles, the old Triumph Mine, a large pile of waste rock, and the mill/concentrator foundation ruins. Mine wastes were generated from the processing of ore for silver, zinc, and lead from 1882 to 1957. The mine tailings had not been capped or removed. In 1983, a local geologist had tailings samples analyzed for lead leachability. In 1988, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality collected surface water samples from drainage ditches near the tailings piles and from the East Fork of the Big Wood River and found elevated concentrations of arsenic, iron, manganese, and zinc (the samples were not analyzed for lead). Subsequent investigations by federal Environmental Protection Agency contractors revealed elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other metals in the mine tailings, in air samples collected downwind of the piles, in household dust from nearby residences, in sediments from the wetland areas south of the tailings piles, and in groundwater from nearby residential drinking water wells. Environmental investigations by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) confirmed the presence of elevated concentrations of metals in mine waste, residential soil, household dust, groundwater, surface water, and sediments. Mine drainage may be distributing site contaminants into the adjacent wetlands. Wind erosion of the tailings piles, especially in the summer months, is redistributing the tailings to residential yards. Residents could be exposed to metals in surface soil, household dust, ambient air, or mine tailings by incidental ingestion, inhalation, or dermal contact with site contaminants.
The ATSDR cited the following risk factors:
- Access to the tailings piles, mine waste, and mill foundation were not restricted.
- Old mine equipment (haul trucks) remain at the mine.
- Mine drainage was flowing in a small ditch next to East Fork Road into the wetland.
- A population sign indicated that there are 49 residents in the Triumph community, 9 of which are children, an especially at-risk population.
- There are residences located between the tailings piles.
- A very large pile of waste rock was observed north of the East Fork Road.
Statistics: The mine earned $28 million in its last 20 years of operation.