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Again, Hecla bounced back. In 1944 – the same year that the last tonnage was hoisted out of the original Hecla Shaft – a remarkable discovery was made at the Polaris mine: a drill intersection of 24 percent lead and 125 ounces per ton silver, enabling the mine to pay dividends throughout the 1940s on the back of this new high-grade material. And an interest in Utah’s Radon and Hot Rock uranium deposits, purchased in 1954, provided more than $9 million over the next nine years to build up the treasury. And then, Hecla made what’s arguably its best strategic move: the purchase of 184,000 shares in the Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines Company, followed by an additional acquisition of 644,058 shares – making
the company the largest shareholder in the Lucky Friday silver-lead mine in Mullan, Idaho. Hecla bought the mine outright in 1964 for $3.4 million.
Lucky Friday was by no means a sure thing. The mine had been down for the count more than once, sold at a 1912 sheriff’s sale for $2,000 and again in 1936 for $120 in back taxes. It wasn’t until 1938 that John Sekulic, a garage mechanic in Mullan, purchased the mine for $15,000
and formed the Lucky Friday Mining Company. The company shipped its first ore in 1942. The mine has been in near-continuous operation ever since, yielding 160
million ounces of silver, more than a million tons of lead, and nearly 200,000 tons of zinc over its lifetime. And that same mine – already one of the world’s top-producing operations – looks to have another 20-plus years of life ahead of it.
From the late 1960s through to the late 70s, silver prices remained stubbornly flat. Hecla again persevered. But then, in 1979, an unlikely savior appeared in the form of oil heirs Herbert and Nelson Hunt, whose plan to corner the silver market led to their downfall – while turning Hecla’s fortunes around in a big way.
As the real value of the U.S. dollar fell, Nelson Hunt predicted an increase in the price of silver; he and his brother began to buy up not only physical silver, but also future contracts. And rather than closing out
their contracts with cash, they took delivery on silver, stockpiling the metal and using cash reserves to buy up even more futures. The billions in demand triggered the rise of silver to more than $50 per ounce. Hecla’s stock price rose accordingly, going from $5.25 in January to a high of $53.50 a year later, making it the New York Stock Exchange’s best performer of 1979.
A devastating fire in 1923 destroyed much of Burke, Idaho, including a number of surface buildings associated with Hecla’s namesake mine. The company would later rebuild – but this time with concrete.
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