Climax mine

The Climax mine, located in Climax, Colorado, United States, is a major molybdenum mine in Lake and Summit counties, Colorado. Shipments from the mine began in 1915. At its highest output, the Climax mine was the largest molybdenum mine in the world, and for many years it supplied three-fourths of the world's supply of molybdenum.

After a long shutdown, the Climax mine has reopened and resumed shipment of molybdenum on May 10, 2012. The mine is owned by Climax Molybdenum Company, a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan.

The prospector Charles Senter discovered and claimed the outcropping of molybdenite (molybdenum sulfide) veins in 1879, during the Leadville, Colorado Silver Boom, but had no idea what the mineral there was. Senter determined that the rock contained no gold or silver, but retained the claims. The following year he settled with his Ute Indian wife a few miles north, and he made a living working a nearby gold placer. Each year he performed the assessment work required to maintain his lode claims, convinced that his mystery mineral must be of value. In 1918 Senter received $40,000 for his mining claims and "settled into a comfortable retirement in Denver."

Although Senter finally found a chemist who identified the gray mineral as containing molybdenum in 1895, at the time there was virtually no market for the metal. When steelmakers determined the utility of molybdenum as an alloy in producing hard steel, the first ore shipments from the deposit began in 1915, and the Climax mine began full production in 1914. The main ore bearing area was Bartlett Mountain, which was mined out during the early mining. The demand for molybdenum fell drastically at the end of World War I, and the Climax mine shut down in 1919. Molybdenum later found use in the metal alloys for the turbines of jet engines. Molybdenum is an important metal used in industrial work to increase the resistance of steel because of its much higher melting point compared to that of iron. Molybdenum was also used to fight weather erosion, friction, and chemical exposure of industrial equipment. The extraction of molybdenite hit its highest during World War I, when the army realized that the Germans were using molybdenum as an alloy to strengthen and increase the durability of their weapons and tanks.

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