Legend has it that Fred Larose threw his hammer at a fox, but hit a rock instead and exposed a piece of silver. Regardless of the circumstances of how the blacksmith who worked for the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Company discovered silver, Fred was happy to sell his interest to the Timmins brothers for the tidy sum of $30,000. He then moved to Hull, Quebec.
In 1907 Larose Mines Ltd. was incorporated to develop the property and they mined it until 1908 when the Larose Consolidated Mining Co. took over. This was followed by LaRose-Rouyn Mines Ltd. in 1926, New Larose Mining & Smelting in 1948, and then Silver Miller Mines Ltd. in 1949. Silver Miller Mines Ltd. was the last company to mine silver here. Total silver production for the Larose property was close to 17.5 million troy ounces and 200,000 pounds of cobalt.
In 1972 Silver Shield Mines Inc. took over the property and all the buildings of Silver Miller Mines were demolished to make way for a proposed silver refinery and mint. Unfortunately, that never came about, and in 1975 Canadian Smelting and Refining Ltd. took the property over and built a refinery and operated here until 1982.
Then Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. bought them out and refined their silver there until 1989 when the company shut down all operations in the Cobalt area.
