U.S. REPORT Spokane Stock Exchange closes

The Spokane Stock Exchange, which played an important role in financing mining activities throughout the Pacific Northwest for 94 years, closed its doors May 24.

“It was a sad day,” said Stan Covey, the exchange’s former president.

The exchange came into being largely as a result of mines developed in the historic Coeur d’Alene district of Idaho, a region which over the years has accounted for a substantial percentage of U.S. silver production. The exchange also played a lesser role in financing mining activity in neighboring British Columbia.

In recent years, however, a number of mines in the Coeur d’Alene district have closed because of low silver prices. This in turn reduced the number of companies listed for trading on the Spokane Stock Exchange, as well as the number of the exchange’s member companies.

“Our membership went down from 13 to about five in the past year,” he said.

But Covey also put some of the blame for the collapse of the exchange on pressure from federal agencies governing penny stocks.

“The tightening and controls they put in place made it very hard for brokers in this country to trade penny stocks,” he said. “The amount of paperwork involved in opening new accounts was almost prohibitive.”

Covey also said the exchange’s member companies were not allowed to retail issues listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange on a solicited basis, which left brokers “almost no product to sell.”