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Hecla got off to something of a rocky start in the first decade following its hundredth year in business. A look at two of its properties – the Yellow Pine and Grouse Creek Units, both located in central Idaho – offers a sharp contrast: the company’s award-winning, forward- thinking approach to mining followed by a massive disappointment.
Yellow Pine was established as a short-term project
to mine about 80,000 ounces of gold over a three-year period beginning in 1988. Though the deposit itself was mined out in 1991, heap-leaching of the ore continued into 1992, when the mine poured its last ounce of gold. Total production reached nearly 100,000 ounces.
Hecla’s reclamation efforts at Yellow Pine were recognized twice – in 1991 and 1993 – when Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus presented the company with the state’s highest award for Excellence in Annual Operations; in 1992, the operation was given the
Industrial Pollution Control Award for Idaho by the Pacific Northwest Pollution Control Association for the unit’s innovative strides toward water quality improvement. Yellow Pine proved that a successful mining project can also be compatible with environmental sustainability.
Grouse Creek came with Hecla’s purchase of CoCa Mines in 1991. Though it was an expensive project – including running a $10 million power line onto the property and the construction of a $200 million mill – it was a time when everyone was looking for ways to make money
out of lower-grade deposits. Meanwhile, initial drilling showed promise, and mining crews hit a pocket of high- grade material early on that sent the company’s stock through the roof. Unfortunately, the ore body failed
to deliver. With cratering gold prices and lower-than- anticipated grades, Hecla had no choice but to shutter the mine less than a year after operations began.
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