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1964 I A merger between Hecla and Lucky Friday Silver- Lead Mines Company is consummated April 1, 1964. After 49 years on the American Stock Exchange, Hecla is listed on the prestigious New York Stock Exchange.
1966 I ASARCO sells the Morning mine (adjacent to the Star mine in Burke, Idaho) to Hecla for $750,000. The company immediately begins sinking a shaft to mine the deep regions of the Star mine.
1967 I Hecla makes what becomes the most costly move in its history: an agreement to develop the Lakeshore copper mine in Arizona. By 1977, with falling copper prices, 1,500 employees are let go and the mine is closed. Lakeshore costs Hecla $96 million.
The Hunt brothers’ move to corner the silver market drives the price to over $50 per ounce.
As a result, Hecla’s stock price shoots up from $5.25 in January to a high of $53.50 12 months later, making it the year’s best performer on the New York Stock Exchange. The huge upsurge in price enables Hecla to get out of the debt caused by the Lakeshore venture within 18 months.
The same year, work begins on the Lucky Friday Silver Shaft – a 6,200-foot-deep, concrete-lined, circular shaft. It’s the first of its type in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District, with a hoisting speed of 2,250 feet per minute, and is completed in 1984.
1981 I The company turns to gold mining with the merger of Day Mines, Inc. and Hecla. Operations begin on the rich Republic gold mine, located in northeast Washington State.
1982 I The Star mine – the deepest in North America at 8,100 feet – is shut down.
1984 I More growth for Hecla comes in the form of a merger with Ranchers Exploration and Development Corporation, owned by the flamboyant Maxie Anderson. This brings Hecla into the industrial minerals business and launches the company into ball clay and volcanic scoria mining. On July 10, Hecla President Bill Griffith announces the company’s intentions to move its headquarters from Wallace, where it had been since 1904, to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
1987 I Hecla purchases a 28% interest in the massive Greens Creek silver-gold-zinc-lead mine on Admiralty Island near Juneau, Alaska. Construction of the mine is a testament to the mining industry’s ability to minimize its impact on the environment.
1989 I The company expands its industrial minerals segment with the acquisition of the kaolin division of Cyprus Minerals.
1990 I One feldspar processing plant and two mines are added to the company.
Hecla celebrates 100 years of mineral production – and completes a merger with CoCa Mines, Inc., which brings with it the undeveloped Grouse Creek gold property in central Idaho. At the company’s Yellow Pine Unit, also in central Idaho, Governor Cecil Andrus honors Hecla with the state’s top award for mining reclamation.
Hecla’s board of directors approves the purchase and development of the La Choya gold property in Sonora, Mexico. The purchase marks the company’s first move into the Mexican mining industry. And, after nearly 100,000 ounces of gold production and four years of operations, Hecla’s Yellow Pine unit is closed.
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1993 I The
Cumulative Convertible Preferred stock, raising $100 million to develop the La Choya and Grouse Creek properties. That same year, Hecla receives Idaho’s top environmental award for “Excellence in Annual Operations of Large Hard Rock Mines,” presented for reclamation work at the Yellow Pine unit.
1994 I Hecla begins operations at the open-pit, heap leach La Choya gold mine, the largest in Mexico at the time. The company completes the acquisition of Equinox Resources Ltd., which brings with it the Rosebud gold property in Nevada. Kentucky-Tennessee Clay Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hecla, opens its first foreign clay processing plant in Monterrey, Mexico. Hecla’s Lucky Friday unit celebrates mining its 100 millionth ounce of silver. In October, Hecla reports disappointing results at the Grouse Creek mine due to lower-than-anticipated gold grades. A re-evaluation
of ore reserves commences while, on December 20, the first gold pour takes place there. The company is awarded two of Idaho’s top reclamation awards based on its performance at Grouse Creek.
1996 I Hecla announces that mining will continue at the Grouse Creek property for one more year while the Sunbeam deposit is mined out.
company issues 2.3 million shares of Series B
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