Hecla positions for silver upswing; Lucky Friday remains essential part of portfolio

Founded in 1891, Hecla Mining Company is the oldest precious metals company on the New York Stock Exchange and the largest primary silver producer in the United States and Canada. An innovative mining method at its historic Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho coupled with a low-cost, high-margin operation at its Greens Creek Mine in Alaska and production growth opportunity at the Keno Hill Mine in Canada’s Yukon Territory has positioned Hecla well for a period in which silver has retraced from its January all-time high but continues to hold above the previous cycle’s peak pricing. And while some precious metal producers have looked for expansion into other commodities, Hecla has turned its focus to its core identity as North America’s premier primary silver producer. In April, Mining Engineering had the opportunity to visit the Lucky Friday Mine. For more than eight decades, Lucky Friday has operated in one of North America’s most productive and geologically challenging silver districts, Idaho’s famed Silver Valley. As mining advanced deeper into the vein system, the same geological forces that created exceptional mineralization also produced increasing seismic hazards at the mine. This challenged the company to find a new way to manage the growing stresses associated with depth. Hecla found its answer with the deployment of the underhand closed bench (UCB) mining method, which was developed and implemented at Lucky Friday. The UCB method uses large-scale, deep-hole blasts to proactively trigger seismic events. The blasts destress the zone while fracturing the ore. More than 90 percent of the area’s seismic energy is released within a 12-hour window. “The constraint that resulted in the development of UCB was seismicity related to a corner geometry between two stopes,” Chris Neville, vice president and general manager of the Lucky Friday Mine, told Mining Engineering. “It was a well-understood seismically active area and was being managed by a common technique by withholding miners from the area after a blast. A very similar situation in the Lucky Friday vein in the 1990s had been managed using a destressing technique. The destressing would eliminate the need to withhold miners to keep them safe and return the stope back to double-shift rather than single-shift production. A blast pattern was executed and achieved the desired effect but also led to the question “What would happen if there were just a few more holes in the blast?” Hence, the UCB concept was sparked, which eventually spread to the rest of the seismically problematic mining areas and the main mining front on the Gold Hunter 30 Vein.” The UCB method changed the way things were done at Lucky Friday and the method received a number of industry accolades, including the prestigious Robert E. Murray Innovation Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) in 2022. The story of UCB is one of the most recent advancements in a decades-long effort to push deeper into one of the world’s most complex underground mining environments while improving safety, productivity and workforce utilization. It has also helped the mine, and by extension, Hecla to position itself to capitalize on a historic upswing in the silver sector.“Industrial demand for silver has grown significantly, increasing 74 percent on a volume basis in 2025 versus 2000 levels, with a decline in photography partly offsetting the increase. Silver is essential to solar photovoltaic cells, electric vehicle (EV) power systems, the growth in electronic adoption, and the semiconductor supply chain,” Mike Parkin, Hecla’s vice president of strategy and investor relations told Mining Engineering. “When governments mandate energy transition, they are effectively adding to the growing demand for silver. The supply side reinforces the case for higher silver prices in the future.” The Silver Institute reported that 2026 silver mine supply is expected to be modestly down from a decade ago, despite silver prices recently hitting new all-time highs ($121.58/oz on Jan. 29, 2026). According to Parkin, today’s market differs fundamentally from previous silver rallies. Historically, silver’s strongest price movements were driven primarily by monetary factors such as inflation concerns, currency uncertainty and safe-haven investment demand. Those influences remain important. However, industrial demand now plays a far larger role. “What we are seeing over the past several years in the silver sector has a structurally different foundation in addition to the current monetary events,” said Parkin. “Even when short-term geopolitical events pull the market’s focus away from precious metals, the investment backdrop that supported the recent rally has not gone away. Countries continue to seek to diversify away from the U.S. dollar, which could support a resumption in central-bank purchases of gold as conditions stabilize. That could be good for gold and silver prices.” Meanwhile, supply faces significant constraints. Parkin told Mining Engineering that few major primary silver discoveries have entered production in recent years. Ore grades across much of the industry continue declining and permitting timelines have lengthened considerably in many jurisdictions.Compounding the challenge, most global silver production originates as a byproduct from mines primarily focused on copper, gold, lead or zinc. As a result, silver supply often remains relatively insensitive to silver prices. According to the Silver Institute, the market may experience a sixth consecutive annual supply deficit in 2026, with recycling increasingly necessary to balance demand. “The industrial demand component is durable,” said Parkin. “The electrification of the global economy is driving demand for silver to support development of data centers, EV production, solar installations as well as from other electrical uses. This has been a multiyear trend in the making and is showing to be advancing and not easing off. This rise in demand is thanks to silver’s superior electrical conductivity characteristics. These are not discretionary trends if you believe the world will continue to go more electric. In our view, this should help provide a good floor price for silver in years to come with respect to market balance. Today’s investment demand — ETF flows, retail positioning — is more cyclical and can reverse, like in past cycles. But the industrial floor under silver is higher than it has ever been, and that floor rises each year as electrification deepens. Even in a risk-off environment, the industrial bid provides support that simply didn’t exist in prior cycles.” For primary silver producers, the implications are significant. And for Hecla, its longest operating mine is expected to play a major part in the company’s future. A mine built on reinvention The histories of Hecla Mining and Lucky Friday began separately before eventually becoming inseparable.Matt Blattman, vice president of technical services at Hecla, said both organizations are products of the Silver Valley’s unique mining culture and technical ingenuity. “Hecla and the Lucky Friday are both Silver Valley stories,” Blattman said. “Hecla was founded in 1891 on its namesake mine in Burke, Idaho, and over the following decades built its underground expertise across the district before the two histories joined.” Lucky Friday entered production in 1942 after decades of relatively limited development. The mine became part of Hecla’s portfolio in 1964 through a merger with Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines Co., establishing an operating continuity that continues today. Several milestones helped shape the mine’s evolution. The completion of the Silver Shaft in 1983 marked a technological leap for the district. The 1,890-m (6,200-ft)-deep shaft was the first circular concrete-lined shaft in the Silver Valley and, at the time, the deepest single-lift shaft in North America. The project enabled new approaches to underground transportation, paste backfill and ore extraction. Two years later, Hecla collaborated with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the University of Idaho to develop the Lucky Friday Underhand Longwall (LFUL) mining method. The technique represented a significant departure from conventional mining practices in the district. Rather than mining upward beneath a diminishing sill pillar, the underhand approach transferred mining-induced stress beneath the stope floor while allowing miners to work beneath engineered cemented backfill. The innovation became the foundation of Lucky Friday’s seismic-control strategy for more than three decades. Yet, even successful mining methods eventually encounter limits. As development advanced into the Gold Hunter deposit and deeper portions of the orebody, seismicity remained a constant challenge. The Lucky Friday vein system is exceptionally productive, but it exists within a highly stressed geological environment. Increasing depth results in elevated rock stresses that can manifest as seismic events, creating operational constraints and safety concerns. Managing those stresses would eventually lead Hecla engineers to develop the UCB method. According to Neville and Bob Golden, chief geotechnical engineer at Lucky Friday, innovation followed necessity.Developing UCB required extensive experimentation across multiple disciplines. Engineers refined blast designs, increased definition diamond drilling density to improve orebody modeling, developed methods for projecting ore continuity across larger vertical intervals and created systems to prevent backfill infiltration into broken rock. Traditional ore control practices also required modification. Conventional sampling techniques rely heavily on exposed rock faces. UCB’s design meant that miners frequently worked with broken ore rather than intact faces, requiring alternative approaches to grade control and reconciliation. Meanwhile, significant ground closure demanded additional engineering solutions. In some stopes, closure exceeded 25 cm (10 in.). Engineers developed methods to reinforce cemented backfill while maintaining mining efficiency and ensuring worker safety.Electronic detonators also played a critical role in the effort. Numerous timing sequences and blast configurations were tested. At one point, three separate blast patterns were evaluated within a single mining cut. The challenge was that results could not be assessed immediately. “The unfortunate nature of the method required about three months to mine the blast patterns out to determine success,” Neville said. “Patience was a required attribute.” Even today, blast designs continue to evolve as engineers seek additional improvements in advance rates and fragmentation, Neville said. Innovation during uncertainty The development of UCB coincided with one of the most turbulent periods in Lucky Friday’s modern history. A labor strike that began in 2017 disrupted operations for nearly three years, and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived close behind. Of the two, the strike was the larger obstacle to the project; COVID-19 added uncertainty without materially altering UCB’s course. The original destress blast that sparked the concept had been planned for 2017 but was delayed until 2019 by the dispute. The strike’s resolution, though, ultimately helped rather than hindered. The new labor agreements gave the operation flexibility that proved valuable during the transition to UCB. “The final agreements with the union resulted in a change in work rules that helped facilitate the development of the UCB. Prior work rules would have had to place miners in their “bid” work area. The UCB required the movement of miners throughout the mine at management’s discretion. This necessary movement made UCB development much easier,” Neville explained. Despite the operational challenges, the workforce largely embraced the effort. “There was no internal resistance,” Neville said. “Everyone on site appeared willing to try anything.”Eventually, the UCB method demonstrated that deep, seismically active underground mines could continue advancing through innovation rather than accepting operational limitations. The true measure of UCB’s success can be seen in the operational performance of Lucky Friday since implementation. Safety improvements Safety was the original driver behind the concept, and safety remains its most significant achievement. By proactively destressing highly stressed mining areas, UCB reduces exposure to seismic hazards while minimizing the need for lengthy production interruptions. The method allows miners to work in areas that would otherwise require operational restrictions due to elevated seismic risk. Rather than simply reacting to seismic conditions, UCB enables engineers to actively manage stress redistribution while maintaining production continuity. Production gains Historically, seismic restrictions often limited affected stopes to single-shift operation. Destressing techniques associated with UCB enabled a return to double-shift production in many areas. The method also improved mining flexibility across the Gold Hunter deposit, allowing the operation to access high-grade ore more efficiently. Combined with the completion of the #4 Shaft in 2017, UCB unlocked portions of the orebody that are among the highest-grade zones in the mine’s history. Those improvements helped position Lucky Friday for sustained production growth at a time when many mature underground mines face declining grades and increasing operating costs. Equally important, success reinforced a culture of innovation. Lucky Friday’s workforce became an active participant in refining UCB rather than simply executing a prescribed plan. That collaborative approach continues to influence ongoing improvements. Positioned for the boom The combination of Lucky Friday, Greens Creek and Keno Hill provides a diversified portfolio built around concentrated silver exposure, in contrast to many peer companies that have increasingly diversified their metal mix away from silver as a primary focus. Greens Creek Mine, located in Alaska, serves as the company’s cornerstone asset. The mine combines low operating costs, strong margins and a reserve life extending beyond a decade. “Greens Creek is a low-cost, high-margin operation in a Tier 1 jurisdiction with over a decade of reserve mine life ahead of it. It generates the cash that lets us be patient and strategic elsewhere,” said Parkin. Lucky Friday Mine combines high grades, long reserve life and improved mining flexibility resulting from recent innovations.Keno Hill Silver District, located in Canada’s Yukon Territory, represents the company’s primary production growth platform. The district offers significant exploration potential and provides additional leverage to rising silver prices as development advances toward targeted throughput levels. Together, the three operations create a portfolio structure that differs from those of many competitors. Looking ahead The future of Lucky Friday may ultimately depend on the same characteristic that has sustained it for more than 80 years: its willingness to evolve. The mine has repeatedly reinvented itself in response to deeper mining, changing technology and increasingly complex geotechnical conditions. From the Silver Shaft to underhand longwall mining to the development of UCB, each generation has confronted challenges that previous generations could not have anticipated. Blattman sees continuity in that pattern. “The Lucky Friday Mine has repeatedly reengineered how it mines in order to keep going deeper and safer,” he said.With approximately 15 years of reserve life and access to some of the highest-grade mineralization in the mine’s history, Lucky Friday appears positioned for sustained performance. “Energy transition is the most credible and most durable long-term driver,” said Parkin. “The photovoltaic and grid storage demand curves are supported by policy, capital commitments and physical installation timelines that are already locked in. Adoption of more electronics in households globally and EV adoption also supports a strong demand for silver in years to come. Investment demand is the most volatile — it amplifies the cycle in both directions, but it is not the foundation. We think about silver as a commodity with a growing industrial identity, and we position Hecla accordingly to have best-in-class revenue exposure to this trend.” The UCB story demonstrates that innovation in underground mining often emerges from operational constraints rather than research programs. A seismic challenge led to a destress blast. A destress blast sparked a question. That question evolved into a patented mining method that reshaped the future of one of North America’s most important silver mines. In a mature mining district with more than a century of history, the most important discoveries are not always geological. Sometimes they are engineering solutions. And sometimes those solutions arrive precisely when the industry needs them most.

Hecla positions for silver upswing; Lucky Friday remains essential part of portfolio

Authored by: William Gleason

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