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PHILLIPS S. BAKER, JR.
president and chief executive officer
1891 WAS A REMARKABLE YEAR.
The Dalton Gang failed in its first train robbery attempt; the first gasoline-powered car debuted in Springfield, Massachusetts, shortly before the first-ever basketball game was played in the same city; Thomas Edison patented a “means for transmitting signals electrically.” And stepping right into this incredible year of innovation were the men who created Hecla Mining Company.
This company was born in one of the top mining districts in the entire world – a district that’s so far produced more than 1.2 billion ounces of silver. Today, we’re the largest primary silver producer in the United States and the country’s third-largest zinc and lead producer.
Hecla’s also the last of those original, gutsy Silver Valley mining companies still standing. But we’ve done more than simply outlast our rivals. We survived the labor unrest of the 19th century, we overcame the unrelenting financial and political challenges of the 20th (including the highs and lows of several supercycles in metals prices), and we continue to grow well into the 21st.
Hecla perfected the underhand mining technique, built the first circular concrete shaft in the Silver Valley, is currently taking the Lucky Friday’s #4 Shaft to nearly two miles below the surface, and has safely mined
within the environmentally sensitive Admiralty Island National Monument for nearly three decades. Much of our progress and innovation over the years has come
out of a desire not only for more production, but, more importantly, for a safer workplace. It’s why we became
an early and full adopter of the National Mining Association’s CORESafety initiative, a program that has largely taken the insights and programs of the biggest mining companies and, at no cost, made them available to the entire industry. Three years after joining the program, we’ve already seen a 30 percent reduction in the All Injury Frequency Rate.
And the metals that Hecla produces? They’re absolutely critical in our daily lives. Silver in particular plays an important role in 21st-century technologies. Its superior conductivity and thermal efficiency make it ideal for
use in all modern electronic devices, from cell phones to tablets to computers. It’s used in solar panels to generate electricity, in filtration systems to purify water, and
in medical imaging technology to diagnose and treat illness. Industry demands it, technology requires it, and emerging economies depend on it.