The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Thanks in large part to significant growth at its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska, Hecla Mining Company reports the second largest silver reserves in its 130-year history. Going into 2022, Hecla's three currently operating mines – Greens Creek, Lucky Friday (Idaho), and Casa Berardi (Quebec) host a combined 37.3 million tons of reserves containing 200 million ounces of silver, 2.73 million oz of gold, 1.81 billion pounds of zinc, and 1.47 billion lb of lead. "Since 2...
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 13 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 9.2 million ounces of silver during 2021, a 12% drop from the 10.5 million oz produced the prior year. This drop was largely due to mining easier to access but lower-grade ore because of manpower challenges around mid-year. Despite the challenges and major jump in production at Hecla's Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho, Greens Creek accounted for 71% of the company's silver production...
Despite a season challenged by heavy rains and an early snowstorm, the massive amount of exploration carried out in Northern British Columbia during 2021 piled loads of drill core and surface samples on assay labs already severely backlogged by COVID-19 protocols and restrictions that slowed the flow of samples in and data out of these facilities. Just how busy was the 2021 exploration season across the northern half of BC? According to North of 60 Mining News calculations,... Full story
Following a year that saw Hecla Mining Company scale back exploration as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Idaho-based silver miner is beginning to get back to its tradition of adding more ore to reserves than is processed through the mills at its mines in the United States and Canada. "While focused, our exploration efforts have spanned our three operating mines and eight of our exploration properties," Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker Jr. said... Full story
While copper may be the new oil of the green energy revolution, a wide variety of industrial minerals and metals found in abundance in Alaska will be needed to build the envisioned low-carbon future. In a 2021 report on the minerals and metals critical to low-carbon energy and transportation, the International Energy Agency estimates that a typical passenger electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional internal combustion engine car and an onshore... Full story
Seeking economic and cultural prosperity for its more than 23,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders while also looking to provide even greater benefits for future generations, Sealaska takes a balanced approach to developing the resources growing above and stored beneath its lands in Southeast Alaska. This does not mean the Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation shuns mining or other resource development in its region, a nearly 600-mile... Full story
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. June 11 announced that Eric Sprott and Hecla Mining Company participated in two private placement financings that raised C$7.68 million, which will primarily go towards further exploration and resource expansion at the company's Dolly Varden silver property in northwestern British Columbia. Situated 46 kilometers (29 miles) southeast of Stewart, the Dolly Varden property covers historic high-grade silver mines that date back to the early 20th century....
A more than 10,000-meter drill program focused on exploring new zones of high-grade silver and expanding the resources already outlined was the centerpiece of Dolly Varden Silver Corp.'s 2020 exploration across its namesake property south of Stewart, British Columbia. The roughly 8,800-hectare (21,745 acres) Dolly Varden property covers four historic mines that produced more than 19 million ounces of silver over four decades beginning in 1919. Four deposits associated with... Full story
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. May 7 announced the start of a 2021 exploration program that includes a planned 10,000 meters of drilling that will initially focus on upgrading and expanding the Torbrit silver deposit on its Dolly Varden project in Northern British Columbia. Located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Stewart, the roughly 8,800-hectare (21,745 acres) Dolly Varden property covers four historic mines that produced more than 19 million ounces of silver over fou...
Hecla Mining Company Oct. 12 reported that its Greens Creek Mine produced 1.8 million ounces of silver and 9,735 oz of gold during the third quarter of 2021, easing off the 10-million-oz-per-year pace set at the Southeast Alaska operation during the first half of 2021. Greens Creek's third-quarter silver output is down about 30% from the 2.6 million oz produced during the same period last year. The quarterly gold production was down by 24% from the 12,833 oz produced during...
Typically thought of as a precious metal used to make coins, jewelry, tableware, and other glimmery objects, silver's true value lies in more industrious properties that make it invaluable to high-tech applications such as solar panels, electric vehicles, and 5G networks. Roughly 28% of the 8,000 metric tons (257.2 million ounces) of silver used in the United States during 2020 went into electrical and electronics devices; 26% into jewelry and silverware; 19% for coins and... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Sept. 14 announced that drilling at its Greens Creek silver mine in Southeast Alaska is on track to replenish the roughly 10 million ounces of silver expected to be mined from reserves this year and is confirming growth areas well beyond the deposit. "At Greens Creek, both underground and surface drilling are giving results that should lead to reserve replacement and additional drilling in the Lil'Sore area," said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Ba... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Aug. 5 reported that the gold, zinc, and lead produced at Greens Creek generated more than enough cash to pay the costs to produce the 5.14 million ounces of silver during the first six months of 2021. After calculating in byproduct credits, the cash cost to produce an ounce of silver at Greens Creek during the first half of the year was negative $1.65. This means that every ounce of silver produced at the underground mine earned Hecla $28.10, which...
Hecla Greens Creek Mining Company is the recipient of Alaska Chamber's Rita Sholton Large Business of the Year award, which pays tribute to businesses that exemplify leadership, ethics, and organization. Alaska Miners Association Executive Director Deantha Skibinski, who nominated the Southeast Alaska silver mine for the prestigious honor, wrote, "Hecla Greens Creek exemplifies special involvement in Alaska's communities through an excellent business reputation, long-term comm...
Hecla Mining Company July 13 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 5.14 million ounces of silver and 25,377 oz of gold through the first half of 2021. This accounts for more than 73% of the 6.98 million oz of silver and nearly 23% of the 111,143 oz of gold produced at Hecla mines so far this year. During the second quarter, Greens Creek produced 2.56 million oz of silver and 12,859 oz of gold. The silver output is roughly par with the first quarter b...
From a world-class graphite deposit in the Northwest to rare earths on the Southeast Panhandle, Alaska has the potential to offer a sustainable and secure supply to meet the coming explosive demand for the minerals and metals crucial to the renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors in North America and around the globe. International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, estimates that this shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility will create nearly... Full story
Hecla Mining Company April 8 reported that its Greens Creek Mine produced 2.6 million ounces of silver and 13,266 oz of gold during the first three months of 2021. The Southeast Alaska mine's first quarter silver output is down about 7% from the 2.8 million oz produced during the same period last year. The quarterly gold production, however, increased by about 8% over the 12,273 oz produced during the first three months of 2020. Hecla says ore grades, lower for silver and...
Mining and mineral exploration helped to bolster an Alaskan economy plagued by COVID-19 during 2020. According to a report prepared by the McKinley Research Group, a renowned Alaska-based research and consulting firm formerly known as McDowell Group, Alaska's mining industry injected roughly $2 billion into the Alaska economy last year. Commissioned by the Alaska Miners Association and Council of Alaska Producers, "The economic benefits of Alaska's mining industry" report... Full story
Hecla Mining Company Jan. 13 reported that its Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 10.5 million ounces of silver in 2020, a 6% increase over the 9.9 million oz produced the prior year and the highest annual production since the Idaho-based company bought full ownership of the operation in 2008. Greens Creek attributed 77% of the 13.5 million oz of silver produced at all of Hecla's operations during 2020. This helped to push companywide silver production well above...
Continuing a tradition of growth, Hecla Mining Company entered 2020 with 37.08 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 212.2 million ounces of silver, 2 billion pounds of zinc, 1.6 billion lb of lead and 2.71 million oz of gold – historic levels of silver reserves for the 129-year-old mining company. This is an 11% increase in silver reserves, even after replacing the 15.4 million oz of silver mined (12.6 million oz produced) during 2019, despite using a... Full story
Whether it is the exponential growth in electric vehicles traveling global highways, the massive need for storing energy at solar and wind electrical generating facilities, or cutting the cords on our electronic devices, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on lithium-ion batteries. And this is driving up the demand for cobalt, a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of these energy storage cells. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materia... Full story
Despite COVID-19 restrictions and protocols changing how it must conduct its business, even temporarily shutting down operations at its Casa Berardi Mine in Quebec and San Sebastian Mine in Mexico, Hecla Mining Company now expects to produce more gold and silver than it forecast at the onset of 2020. Based on production through the first three quarters, the Idaho-based miner now expects to produce nearly 13 million ounce of silver and 210,000 oz of gold this year, up from the...
Rising metal prices are helping to soften the blow COVID-19 has landed on Alaska's mining sector in 2020. While mining has been deemed an essential business in Alaska, which has helped keep the six large mines in the state operating during the pandemic, measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 are weighing on production at some of these operations. Efforts to flatten the curve on the spread of coronavirus also disrupted several winter drill programs in Alaska,... Full story
Hecla Mining Company July 10 said silver production at its Greens Creek silver mine exceeded expectations during the first half of 2020, due to the higher grade ore mined there. The Southeast Alaska operation produced 5.53 million ounces of silver during the first six months of this year, a 20% increase over the 4.61 million oz produced during the first half of 2019. During the three months ending June 30, Greens Creek produced 2.75 million oz of silver, a 16% increase over... Full story
Mining found its way to the remote Kitsault Valley in northwestern British Columbia around 1910, bringing with it the ups and downs typical of mining regions in a bygone era. Roughly 29 miles southeast of Stewart and just outside of reach of the Golden Triangle, this area of B.C. has proven to be a treasure chest of minerals such as silver, gold, copper, zinc, lead, and molybdenum for more than a century. The first boom in the Kitsault Valley came with the Dolly Varden silver... Full story
