Starts 2023 strong with 4M oz from Greens Creek and Lucky Friday; 2.5M oz boost expected from Keno Hill to close out the year.

Hecla Mining Company April 14 reported that record mill throughput at its Greens Creek Mine in Alaska helped to launch a strong start to 2023 silver production, and the slated third quarter start of production at its Keno Hill Mine in the Yukon is expected to culminate in a spectacular finish to the year.

The Greens Creek Mine produced 2.8 million ounces of silver during the first three months of 2023, a roughly 14% increase over the 2.4 million oz produced during both the previous quarter and the first three months of 2022.

The primary reason for this strong start to 2023 silver production is a record mill throughput of 2,591 tons per day.

The increased output at Greens Creek helped to bolster Hecla's companywide silver production to 4 million oz, a 10% increase over the previous quarter and a 20% increase over the first three months of 2023.

The balance of Hecla's first-quarter silver came from Lucky Friday, an Idaho mine that produced 1.3 million oz, which is 3% higher than the previous quarter and 44% higher than the 888,000 oz produced during the first three months of 2022.

Hecla attributes the quarterly increase to a 5% rise in mill throughput as the Idaho mine builds upon multiple milestones achieved in 2022.

"Hecla's silver mines delivered another strong operational quarter with new milestones achieved at both Greens Creek and Lucky Friday," said Hecla Mining President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr. "Greens Creek set a new quarterly throughput record as we continue our work towards achieving 2,600 tpd while Lucky Friday reported its fourth consecutive quarter of silver production exceeding 1 million ounces."

Keno Hill

The strong 2023 start at Greens Creek and Lucky Friday are setting the stage for a sterling finish to the year, with 2.5 million oz of extra silver expected to come from Hecla's new Keno Hill Mine in the Yukon.

"This quarter's production growth is an important step toward producing approximately 17 million ounces of silver this year and increasing production to 20 million ounces by 2025, allowing Hecla to continue to be the world's fastest growing established silver producer," said Baker.

Since finalizing the acquisition of Keno Hill in September, Hecla has steadily been working toward ramping up to commercial production at this high-grade silver mine in Canada's Yukon.

Going into 2023, Keno Hill hosts 2.2 million tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 22.5 oz/t (49.7 million oz) silver, 0.01 oz/t (13,000 oz) gold, 2.2% (49,320 tons) zinc, and 2.4% (52,520 tons) lead.

This is a 33% increase over the reserves identified at the time of Hecla's acquisition of Alexco.

With planned preproduction development now 65% complete and ore already being stockpiled, Hecla plans to fire up the Keno Hill mill during the third quarter.

The mill is undergoing a variety of minor modifications with more planned, as well as testing various areas of the mill before starting production sometime after mid-year.

"Keno Hill's increased development keeps it on track for commencing production in the third quarter, so silver production is expected to be in excess of 2.5 million ounces for the year," Baker said.

With Greens Creek starting 2023 at a more than 10-million-oz-per-year pace and Lucky Friday at a 5-million-oz-per-year stride, the added silver from Keno Hill will add to what is shaping up to be a record silver year for Hecla.

Gold, zinc, and lead

While silver production is on a record-setting pace, Hecla's gold output continues to decline.

During the first quarter, the Idaho-based mining company produced 39,571 oz of gold, which is a 9% drop from the fourth quarter of 2022 and about 5% lower than the first quarter of last year.

Alexco Resource Corp.

Hecla is completing underground development and stockpiling ore ahead of the planned third-quarter start of production at its new Keno Hill silver mine in Canada's Yukon.

This drop is due to less output from the Casa Berardi Mine in Quebec, Hecla's only primary gold operation.

Casa Berardi produced 24,686 oz of gold during the first quarter, which is a 20% drop from the 30,709 oz produced during the previous quarter.

Hecla anticipated the fall in gold output at the mine due to lower-grade ore being fed into the mill.

The lower gold output at Casa Berardi, however, was partially offset by the 14,885 oz of aurum produced at Greens Creek, which is 15% higher than was produced at the Southeast Alaska mine during the final three months of 2022 and a 45% jump over the first quarter of last year.

In addition to precious metals, Hecla's Greens Creek and Lucky Friday mines produced a combined 15,795 tons (31.6 million pounds) of zinc and 13,236 tons (26.5 million lb) of lead during the first quarter of 2023.

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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