Hecla Mining Snapshot
Not all that glitters at Hecla Mining is gold -- in fact, most of it is silver. Hecla explores for and mines gold, silver, lead, and zinc. It produces some 10.5 million ounces of silver and 69,000 ounces of gold annually; silver accounts for more than half of the company's sales. Hecla operates mines in the US (Alaska and Idaho) and Mexico. Half of the company's sales are to Teck Resources, which processes the minerals at its smelter in British Columbia. The company's Greens Creek gold/silver/zinc/lead mine in Alaska had been a joint venture with Rio Tinto until Hecla bought it outright in 2008. Hecla sold properties in Venezuela to help pay for its acquisition of the Greens Creek property that year.