Hecla Mining

Hecla Mining is a gold, silver and other precious metals mining company based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Founded in 1891,[1] is the second-largest mining company that produces silver in the country. This area is known as the Silver Valley (Idaho). In 1983, this entire area was designated as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency, because of land, water, and air contamination resulting from a century of mostly unregulated silver and gold mining.

History

Through buying and selling Hecla mining company to various people, it was incorporated in Washington on July 12, 1899, with Amasa Campbell, Patsy Clark, and John Finch as its official founders. James Toner was the first to file a claim on the Hecla Company on May 5, 1855. Edward Moffit was the first manager who saw that they paid their first dividend and began rebuilding the company. James R Smith was the first president of the company. In 1904, Hecla mining company moved its headquarters from Washington to Idaho. Through years of growth, Hecla mining company managed to be listed in New York Curb Exchange and began sending ore to Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex in 1917. In 1920 Hecla acquired Federal Mining & Smelting Co.'s claims near Hecla, including the Tiger-Poorman.

Hecla experienced a fire tragedy in 1923, which halted business for nearly six months. Burkes business district burnt down, which included Hecla’s surface plant. Through insurance, they returned to business and rebuilt Hecla’s plant with concrete and steel. In 1930, they gained control of the Polaris Mine and bought the surrounding property. This was a successful move because Polaris could pay dividends for Hecla for the remainder of 1940.[2] Hecla took advantage of the low season, which the country experienced in the 1930s, and developed new mines, including Polaris in the 1940s. Hecla began a tailings mill at Osborn, processing over 4 million tons of canyons tailings for the next five years. Consequently, more ore had been discovered in 1946 after deepening the silver summit shaft to 3,000 feet (910 m). In 1955, Hecla became the largest shareholder. With Lester Randall as president, the company rose higher because he reconciled Hecla’s balance sheet and sold its interest in exchange for stock.[3] In 1958, Hecla became the principal owner of lucky Friday silver-lead mines after purchasing its shares. In 1964 the management merged Lucky Friday and silver-lead mines into Hecla mining company. This allowed Hecla to trade on the New York Curb Exchange. In 1967, Hecla agreed to develop the lakeshore copper mine in Arizona, which was unsuccessful due to the low copper prices. Hecla suffered a considerable loss; the copper mine was closed eventually.[4]

In 1979, William Griffith was elected president of Hecla. He sank a third shaft at lucky Friday, taking it to 6205 feet in 1983. Hecla also acquired the knob hill gold mine and the whole of random Friday. In 1982, star morning was shut down. Hecla continued to merge and acquire new mines in following years. Hecla, in 2011, landed an environmental suit under the Superfund statute. In 2017, it reported 2016 production totaling 17.2 million ounces of silver and 233,929 ounces of gold.