Hecla Mining Co HL

Keno Hill begins ramp-up:330 tpd in June

[mattbigham]

Keno Hill begins ramp-up, Lucky Friday reports highest quarterly silver production in more than 20 years

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, July 13, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) today announced its preliminary silver and gold production for the second quarter and first half of 2023.

HIGHLIGHTS

Year to Date ("YTD") 2023 compared to YTD 2022 ("prior YTD")

• Keno Hill produced 184,264 ounces of silver, June throughput of 330 tons per day (tpd)

• Silver production increased 13%

• Gold production decreased 14%

• Zinc production increased 3%; lead production increased 9%

"Hecla's growing silver production was driven by Lucky Friday’s 21% increase compared to the first half of 2022 and a 6% increase at Greens Creek. In addition, Keno Hill, while still testing the mill, operated in its first month at 75% of the targeted 440 tpd throughput using "low-grade" ore to generate almost 200,000 ounces of silver," said Phillips S. Baker, Jr., Hecla's President, and CEO. "Greens Creek's quarterly production was in line with the plan, and Lucky Friday's silver production was the highest since I started at Hecla more than 20 years ago."

Baker continued, "Our silver operations remain on track to produce about 17 million ounces this year, with Keno Hill expected to produce more than 2.5 million ounces. With expected silver production of about 20 million ounces in 2025, Hecla is the world’s fastest-growing established silver producer and the dominant producer of silver in the U.S. and soon Canada."

[roberto146]

Well that was a nice surprise - based only on seasonals and intuition I got back in on the 6th of July. I didn't expect it this early - usually when companies say '3rd Quarter' production start it means the end of the quarter. Good job!

[HuskySW]

The mill was rated at over 400 TPD as per purchase agreement with Alexco I believe,  and probably didn't suffer to much during "down time" as it is a flotation type process.  To me the "new mill" appears the same more or less as the one used in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's.  So I don't see any great unknown there's of something that

[roberto146]

HuskySW I still had UKHM annual reports from the '90s until a while back. Start-up soon, next quarter, etc etc. Got in a housecleaning mood and threw them out. ... As far as revenue from remediation, the remediation company Alexco Environmental Group (of which AXU CEO Nauman was CEO of at one time, perhaps by virtue of being CEO of Alexco) was sold by AXU to AEG  management in about 2020

[HuskySW]

Thanks Roberto, Thanks for the point of view and information on remediation, I believe you are correct and the remediation of KH is still being completed.  These things get a little grey when ownerships changes hands and company owned subsiduaries are involved.  For some reason I thought Ensero was involved before 2020 but it's all OK, it's water under the bridge so to speak

[roberto146]

As far as making a go of it, Hecla projects 2.5 MM oz in 2023 for Keno and maybe 4 MM oz for 2024 with estimated AISC of 10.25 to 11.50/oz. They've put the money in, it's running, so let's see what happens. ... Whatever it's used for doesn't matter; all I know about silver is that according to the silver bugs and doomsday commentators we've been running out of it for 50 or

[HuskySW]

Your right Roberto, lets see what happens.  GLTA.  Right now i see HL just happliy cruising along. Whatever happens or not at Keno Hill will not have the same effect on Hecla (or shareholders) as the ill fated AXU.  AXU was a startup promo investment touting all the Keno Hill history and massive silver extraction since the Klondike.  LOL  But certainly not promoting the